Follow-up urged to human rights commission report

Follow-up urged to human rights commission report

JAKARTA (JP): Human rights campaigners responded positively to
the independent findings of the National Commission on Human
Rights concerning the July 27th riots and urged follow-up to
"shed some light" on the 74 missing persons.

Luhut Pangaribuan of the Legal Aid Institute commended the
commission for its "courage" in producing a report which did not
merely emulate the official military version.

"It's a good start but we have to finish this. Any good job
started but not completed becomes useless," he told The Jakarta
Post, stressing the need to investigate the fate of those
missing.

On Saturday, the commission issued their long-awaited report
on the casualties of the July 27th riot which erupted following
the takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.

The report said five people died, while 149 were injured and
74 were missing.

The military had earlier declared that four died in the
rioting, but no mention was made of those missing.

"The report validates what people have been complaining
about," said Luhut.

He noted that the commission's independent probe of the
incident came about as a response to people's concerns about the
fate of the missing people. He said the findings further
reinforced the impression that the commission is determined to be
autonomous and not merely toe the official line.

He then underlined the findings on the missing people, a fact
which he said was never touched upon by the government.

"The government never ever said there were any missing," Luhut
said.

The commission refused to explain the circumstances of the
deaths, injuries and disappearances, but said that they were not
pressured by a third party in making their report.

"The next step now is to form a fact-finding team to probe the
disappearances," Luhut said.

Separately, well-known lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana told
the Post she was exasperated that the government had neglected to
mention anything about the large number of those still missing.

"There was no official explanation from the government about
those missing. The burden of responsibility for those missing
should be on the security forces," said the director of a legal
aid body for the Association of Indonesian Women for Justice.

"The security apparatus has to respond about the fate of those
missing," she said, charging that "being missing is as much a
violation of rights as being dead".

She added that people expect a response and are entitled to
one.

"Some light has to be shed on this new darkness," she
remarked.

Nursyahbani also praised the commission for its report which
"bravely" differed from the official explanation. The military
had urged the commission to "put the interest of the nation
first" when reviewing the riots.

She pointed out that such pleas were an indirect form of
"pressure".

"The findings certainly give us a more honest explanation,
although they may not satisfy all parties," she said, referring
to various sources that have claimed several dozen more deaths
than the official tally.

"The actual numerical difference here really doesn't matter,
the point is the report shows the commission is independent," she
said. (mds)