Govt must revise reconciliation law
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.