Govt criticized for reconciling with New Order elements

Govt criticized for reconciling with New Order elements

Kurniawan Hari and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Critics have lashed out at the government of President Megawati
Soekarnoputri for its reconciliation with leading figures of the
New Order regime and, in doing so, ignoring their human rights
record.

Two victims' advocates groups, Vocal Petisi 50 and the
National Commission for Missing Person and Victims of the
Violence (Kontras), said that the Megawati administration has
made a series of deals with influential members of the New Order
regime in a bid to maintain power.

"Getting rid of the actors of the New Order is a must" to
spearhead reforms, Petisi 50 Secretary Chris Siner Key Timu said
in a statement on Saturday.

The Petisi 50 group predicted that, in the absence of the
political will to rejuvenate the stalled reform process, there
will be systematic efforts to revive the culture of the
autocratic New Order regime.

According to group members, an indication of the New Order's
newfound influence can be seen in the ongoing erosion of people's
quality of life and the crippling of the national economy.

The contemporary Indonesian political scene lacks "the
substance and morality needed to attain people's sovereignty,"
Chris added.

Speaking at a year-end press conference in Jakarta on Friday,
Kontras coordinator Ori Rahman criticized the five-month-old
Megawati administration as "sacrificing the human rights by
creating many controversial political decisions in the effort to
maintain country's security and integrity."

Ori referred to Presidential Instruction No. VII/2001,
replacing the Instruction No. IV/2001 on the restoration of
security and peace in the troubled province of Aceh.

He also noted Presidential Decree No. 229/2001 on the
appointment of A.M. Hendropriyono, a controversial military
figure with a history tainted by charges of human rights
violations, as chief of the National Intelligence Agency.

Ori also sharply criticized the government's policy of
quelling rising calls for independence in Iriyan Jaya by
promoting violence, which reached its peak with the recent death
of Papuan leader Theys Hiyo Eluay.

"The separatist problems in Aceh and Papua cannot be solved by
imposing Laws of the Nanggroe Aceh Darusalam (NAD) and Papuan
Autonomy," amid demands the government cease "human rights
violations and stop any repressive acts," he said.

"The government has failed to show its commitment to seriously
processing human rights violations," he continued.

He cited the bloodshed at Tanjung Priok in 1984 and 1999 post-
ballot violence in East Timor as two examples. Some Indonesian
generals have been named as suspects in the cases, "but, to date,
they have never been sent to trial," Ori said.

The investigation of Trisakti and Semanggi, he added, were
also cause for concern. In that instance, the House of
Representatives took over judicial functions via a special
committee, which later said there were no gross human rights
violations in the fatal shooting incidents in which 30 young
people, mostly students, were killed, according to Ori.

Ori went on to call 2001 the year of terror for human rights
activists such as Munir, the former coordinator of Kontras who
recently faced a series of bomb threats at his house in Malang,
Central Java -- and Johnson Pandjaitan of the Indonesian Legal
Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), who was recently shot at
by a group of unidentified men while riding on his motorcycle.

Several other local figures were not so lucky, he added,
pointing to Dayan Dawood, the rector of the Syahkuala University
in Banda Aceh and Theys Hiyo Eluay, chairman of the Papuan
Presidium Council (PDP) "who were killed by unknown people," Ori
said.

Ori added that the government's plan to establish an
Antiterrorism Law directly threatens people's basic freedoms,
owing to its militaristic language.

Many critics have assailed the bill, widely expected to be
enacted into law by the House of Representatives next year, as
just another version of the never-ending debate on the first
priority of the law -- security for innocent civilians, or the
human rights of suspected terrorists.

"The calm situation during Christmas Eve doesn't give any
guarantee as to whether the terror will end because the
government, as well as the police, have failed to disclose the
terrorists" behind last year's Christmas bomb blasts throughout
Jakarta, Ori added.