Govt must revise reconciliation law
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A discussion here on Wednesday identified shortcomings in Law No. 27/2004 on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR), and called for amendments to its articles in order to make the much- touted commission actually work.
Institute of Policy Research and Advocacy director Ifdhal Kasim said a stumbling point was Article 27, which recommends that compensation and rehabilitation for victims of human rights abuse be given only after an amnesty is granted for violators.
"What if the culprits don't get an amnesty? Or what if the alleged perpetrators don't apply for an amnesty? The victims will end up with nothing," he said.
Passed in September last year, the law provides amnesty to human rights violators if they reveal the truth and give restitution to their victims.
The mechanism has raised doubts as many see it as an inadequate incentive for alleged culprits to speak the truth because amnesty is not automatically granted, despite their testimonies.
Lawmaker Sidharto Danusubroto, who headed the special committee deliberating the law, said the final verdict indeed lay in the hands of the ad hoc Human Rights Tribunal set up to try rights violators refusing to confess their wrongdoings.
"And like it or not, we have to believe that the tribunal will work properly and fairly to serve justice," he said.
The ad hoc tribunal had acquitted all high-ranking military personnel in the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre, while it sentenced only civilians tried for the 1999 East Timor atrocities and acquitted implicated police and military officers of all charges.
Sidharto admitted that the law was indeed far from effective in helping the commission produce satisfying results, but quickly added that it was "better for it to be born crippled rather than to have it aborted".
He, nonetheless, agreed that amendments could be made, even though the commission itself was not yet established.
Ifdhal said the law also did not define the culprit, making it impossible to prosecute the masterminds of crimes -- a situation dissatisfying for victims and their families because the few who get prosecuted are mostly just carrying out orders from their superiors.
He argued that the commission should actually focus on seeking and revealing the truth by letting the victims be heard.
"It should emulate what the Argentine commission did. It gathered victims' testimonies, and later drew a report about how and why the crimes took place by identifying the involved institutions and allowing systems. It's like rewriting the real history, and the report was later submitted to prosecutors as evidence.
As for the victims, they get proportional compensation and restitution regardless of whether or not the alleged culprits confess," Ifdhal said.