Govt not serious about rights issues: Activists

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government's serious lack of commitment to upholding basic rights in the political, social, economic and cultural spheres has created a vacuum where rights violations could flourish, activists said on Monday.

Center for Human Rights Studies (Yapusham) executive director Todung Mulya Lubis urged the administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri to immediately issue the regulations necessary to ensure that the people's basic rights were respected.

Speaking during a seminar organized by the National Taskforce for Human Rights (KKN HAM), Todung also underlined the importance of comprehensively enshrining human rights in the Constitution so as to serve as an umbrella for the international covenants on human rights that Indonesia had already ratified.

"The second phase of the amendment of the 1945 Constitution has failed to embrace all human rights principles as it still adheres to non-retroactivity so as to hamper the prosecution of past rights violations. This is the result of a compromise with the old guard," Todung said.

"There should be more comprehensive clauses in the Cconstitution on human rights, with a mechanism being provided for the resolution of rights cases ... not only an internal mechanism but a regional one as well since human rights issues resonate beyond a country's borders," he said.

Most cases of rights violations which have been highlighted by the international community are believed to have been committed by the military.

The people at large had been clamoring for strict procedures for the Indonesian armed forces in handling riots and demonstrations so as to prevent major human rights violations.

Suporing Todung's view was National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) member Saafroedin Bahar, who said that both the government and the legislators would remain inconsistent with their policies for protecting and promoting human rights.

"Although we have put in place a national action plan on human rights for the period 1998-2003, Indonesia will not ratify the main conventions on civil and political rights, and economic, social, and cultural rights in the near future since they have yet to be included in the legislative program for 2002," he said.