Former Buru prisoners want equality

Former Buru prisoners want equality

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government's plan to rehabilitate the civil and legal rights
of past former political prisoners is expected to finally end all
forms of discrimination against them and their families.

"If the president is really determined to do so, the
government must rehabilitate the rights of former political
prisoners across the country, not only for those who were exiled
on Buru Island," Margondo Hardono told The Jakarta Post on
Thursday.

Margondo, a former political prisoner now in his late 80s, was
exiled to Buru Island, Maluku for 14 years starting in 1969,
together with others who were accused of having links to the
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was accused by certain
generals of masterminding a coup attempt in 1965. Former
president Soeharto rose to power after the alleged coup attempt.

Margondo said that he expected President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono to issue a decree restoring the civil and legal rights
of political prisoners so that existing regulations and practices
deemed discriminatory against them and their families would be
scrapped.

But he was quick to add that the government should also reveal
the truth behind the 1965 incident and its bloody aftermath,
considered by many outside observers as one of the most violent
episodes in modern history.

The government has been under pressure from rights activists
to quickly set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR),
whose main task would be to settle past rights abuses committed
by state institutions.

Margondo was commenting on earlier reports that the President
had agreed to restore the rights of former political prisoners
sent to Buru Island between 1969 and 1979 as part of efforts to
settle past human rights abuses. Compensation would also be paid.

Details of the new plan, however, remain sketchy.

Thousands of political prisoners, mostly linked to the PKI,
were sent to Buru Island during the period of Soeharto's New
Order regime. Families of political prisoners also had to bear
discriminatory practices for many years. They were banned from
participating in general elections, and from working in
government institutions or the military. Their identity cards
were marked with the letters "ET" (Ex-Tapol, meaning former
political prisoner linked to the PKI), making them targets of
ongoing discrimination in nearly all facets of their lives.

Although serious efforts to restore the rights of former
political prisoners have been taken over the past five years,
including allowing them and their family members to participate
in general elections, many discriminatory practices remain.

Separately, Chairman of the Institute for Policy Research and
Advocacy (ELSAM) Ifdhal Kasim said that a presidential decree to
restore the rights of former political prisoners was necessary as
it would convey a political statement that the government wanted
to settle past human rights abuses.

Ifhdal said that the rehabilitation of former political
prisoners "was a must" because many of them, who were exiled
without trial, in fact had nothing to do with the PKI.

Both Ifhdal and Margondo also welcomed the plan to provide
compensation for former political prisoners.

"But it's not only about money. The compensation could never
repay the suffering of the victims. It just serves to confirm the
government's responsibility toward the victims, even though it
was not the current government that caused the suffering," Ifdhal
said.

"The amount of the compensation is not a big deal. We only
want our rights as citizens restored," Margondo said.