Government urged to set up truth body

JAKARTA (JP): Human rights campaigners urged the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid on Thursday to set up a truth and reconciliation commission to allow the country to come to terms with its traumatic recent past.

Speakers at a seminar said the country should learn the truth by bringing together victims and perpetrators of human rights violations. Revealing the truth will help in the healing process of the victims as well as the nation, they said.

The activists, including Bambang Widjojanto of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) and Maj. Gen. (ret) Samsudin of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas), spoke at a workshop exploring the idea of establishing a truth and reconciliation commission.

Abdurrahman broached the idea of the commission early this year, saying it would be modeled on the inquiry into the atrocities committed during the apartheid regime in South Africa.

He has not mentioned the idea in public since becoming president on Oct. 20.

The freedom of expression ushered in after the resignation of president Soeharto in May 1998 has been accompanied by horrific disclosures of many atrocities -- including cases which were well-known and others long covered up -- committed during his 32 years in power.

The demand for the truth came from former communist prisoners who were jailed by Soeharto after he came to power, as well as more recent prisoners of conscience. The newfound freedom of expression has also often led to emotional condemnations of the former leader, his Golkar Party and the Indonesian Military.

Samsudin, a retired Army general, said the truth about the violations must be brought out into the open as part of the healing process.

"Should we just sit together and shake hands and simply forget about them? For the victims, and probably the perpetrators, it is difficult to ignore the fact that such inhumane things happened."

Apologies and expressions of commiseration are not enough, he added.

He identified two kinds of primary crimes which concerned the world community: human rights violations and war crimes. Both should be tried in court, he added.

Establishing tribunals would not be enough, he said, but must be followed by rehabilitating and compensating the victims.

South African Ambassador to Indonesia B.S. Khubeka explained his country's experience with such a commission. "We were asking people not to seek revenge, but to forgive," he said.

Bambang Widjojanto said the commission must hold a definite goal and scope, as well as full authority.

The kind of violations and the specific period of time over which they occurred should be defined, or else the commission would be overloaded by cases, he said.

The idea for the truth and reconciliation commission should be offered to the public for them to decide if it was what the country needed, Bambang said.

"They could also determine which violations should be looked at." He acknowledged it would be a lengthy process but said it would be worthwhile.

Bambang said he believed President Abdurrahman possessed the political will to solve past human rights abuses as a way of regaining public trust in the administration.

Members of the People's Consultative Assembly have also promised to consider the proposal, he said.

Abdul Hakim said members of the commission should have strong integrity, be popular among the public and possess good track records.

He doubted the legal system and law enforcement agencies held the capability to deal effectively with past human rights abuses, given that their participation would be tainted by their role in the atrocities.

The police, the Attorney General's Office and the courts were used by the Soeharto regime to justify its actions, he said.

Oka Mahendra, an aide to the Minister of Law and Legislation, said his office would look into the legal aspects and requirements for the establishment of a commission.

He argued that present legal instruments were adequate to deal with human rights abuse.

"With the new law on human rights, which guarantees transparency in settling human rights cases, the government has already started to go that way," he said. (emf)