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.