Fate of political prisoners examined
JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights is currently examining the fate of current and former political prisoners, including the possibility of seeking the release of those who have been imprisoned for a long time.
Bambang Suharto, a member of the commission, disclosed yesterday that four months ago the commission appointed a team to work out a comprehensive concept on how to treat the political detainees.
The concept will then be proposed to the government, he said at a seminar to review their fate.
The seminar was organized by the Indonesian Society for Humanitarianism (MIK), a forum made up largely of lawyers established last year to fight for the restoration of the rights of political prisoners.
Their main concern, as expressed at the seminar, was the fate of the prisoners rounded up in the aftermath of the 1965 coup attempt by the Indonesian Communist Party.
Hundreds of thousands of these people have been released since the late 1970s, but most have not seen their civic rights fully restored.
About a dozen of them languish in jail, mostly serving life terms. At least five were sentenced to death and face the uncertainty of whether or not they will be executed.
Although those released can vote in general elections, they cannot run in the election. They, and their offspring, are also barred from working in the government, the military and certain professions considered strategic like teaching and journalism.
Indonesia's other political prisoners and detainees come from a series of regional rebellions, including the recent separatist insurgences in Aceh, Irian Jaya and East Timor.
Long enough
Bambang agreed that those rounded up after the 1965 coup attempt that are still in jail have served long enough.
"It is natural that they should be released," he said.
Besides the long lapse of time, the threat of communism has receded significantly with the collapse of the Soviet Union and international communism in general, he said.
Justice Bismar Siregar, who took part in the discourse, agreed that it was time the nation forgave these former and current political prisoners.
"If God Almighty can forgive them, why can't we?" he said. "Should we continue to resent them after all this time?"
This is the same question he asks every month while visiting the Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta to chat with the political prisoners there, he said.
The National Commission on Human Rights sent a delegation to meet with the political prisoners last March. The inmates then pleaded to the delegation to at least try to commute the sentence of the five on death row to life imprisonment.
The Indonesian Society for Humanism is a forum founded by five organizations: the Jakarta chapter of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Advocates Association (IKADIN Jakarta), the Institute for the Study of Advocacy (ELSAM), the Pijar Foundation, and the Working Group of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (POKJA LPK-PGI).(imn)