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)