Group set up to assist victims of state violence

JAKARTA (JP): An aunt of a man injured in the Semanggi incident, a relative of a missing person and a friend of a Trisakti University student who was shot dead have established a group for victims of state violence.

State Violence Victims Solidarity (SKKN), announced on Tuesday, groups relatives and friends from several cases.

They include the shooting of Trisakti students in May 1998, the beating and shooting of demonstrators near the Semanggi cloverleaf last November and the killing of civilians in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, in 1984.

People imprisoned for attempting to set up an Islamic state in Lampung and West Java and their relatives also are part of the group.

The independent Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) acts as the group's legal division. The establishment of Kontras also involved relatives of victims of violence.

Citing unrest in Kalimantan and Maluku and mysterious killings of alleged criminals the 1980s, Usman Hamid of the investigation team in the Trisakti case said the tragedies "can never be forgotten".

The group's statement added: "The tragedies must be revealed transparently, fairly and wisely." Also noted were violence in Aceh, East Timor and Irian Jaya, and the 1982 eviction of locals for the building of a dam in Kedung Ombo, Central Java.

None of the cases have been settled. Several people remain in jail on charges of subversion.

"Demands toward the state or the government in settling all rights abuses through legal enforcement and justice is growing stronger," SKKN said.

Sukardi, a former prisoner in the Lampung case, heads the network division; Dimjati, a relative of missing businessman Deddy Hamdun is in charge of public relations and the treasurer is Cecilia Winanta.

Cecilia said her nephew, whose name she would not disclose, survived the Semanggi incident. His head was grazed by a bullet, according to the diagnosis by doctors at Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, she said.

"A bystander who rushed to help him was shot in the back," she added.

The group also is monitoring other cases and hopes other victims or their relatives and friends will join them.

SKKN said it rejected the draft bill on human rights which limits investigation of rights abuses to the last five years.

The draft was "an effort to wipe out political sins by state apparatus during the regime of Soeharto", the group said.

Separately, rights activists demanded that the deliberation of the draft bill on human rights and the bill on the commission on human rights be stopped and left to the new legislature to be sworn in later this year.

The statement was issued by the Institute of Community Studies and Advocacy (Elsam), Kontras, the National Commission on Human Rights and Violence Against Women and other organizations.

Fundamental issues, such as the limit on state authority, cannot be defined in laws but should be part of the Constitution, the activists said.(anr)