Habibie urged to release all political prisoners unconditionally
Habibie urged to release all political prisoners unconditionally
JAKARTA (JP): Observers are appealing to President B.J.
Habibie to grant amnesty to all political prisoners to signal a
clean break from Soeharto's New Order regime.
Political scientist Muhammad A.S. Hikam of the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI) discussed in a seminar on Monday the
"social death" suffered by political prisoners under Soeharto's
regime from the alienation accompanying discriminatory labels.
Released communist prisoners, for instance, were treated as if
they were disfranchised as citizens, Hikam said. "There's no
(other) such regime in the world."
He believed the pardon should extend to jailed East Timorese
rebel leader Alexandre Xanana Gusmao, and that Habibie should
invite him to contribute to the search for solutions to problems
in the former Portuguese colony.
"It (Habibie's regime) must free all political prisoners...
especially Xanana Gusmao... to (show) it is not the continuation
of Soeharto's regime," Hikam said. "Let him go and invite him to
talk to find solution to the East Timor problem."
Habibie must also revive all the rights of the political
prisoners released, he said.
"What does it (Habibie's administration) have to lose anyway?"
asked 77-year-old former political prisoner Suhario Padmodiwiryo.
Better known as Hario Kecik, he was formerly commander of the
East Kalimantan military command from 1959 to 1964.
Ken, a 65-year-old who was jailed for links to the outlawed
Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) from 1965 to 1978, complained:
"Even if we've been freed, our rights are still shackled."
The resident of Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta asked that he be
identified only by his initials because he did not want his 17-
year-old son to find out he was an "ex-PKI", a stigma that he
claimed he suffered without any justification.
"We've been victims of a crime we did not commit.
"Please help us in any way you can so our children won't have
to suffer like us," he told The Jakarta Post.
Another speaker, Gustaf Dupe of the Action Committee for the
Release of Political Prisoners, pleaded to Habibie's
"intellectuality, legal and political capacity as well as his
conscience" to thoroughly solve the problem of political
prisoners.
Oka Mahendra, who represented Minister of Justice Muladi in
the discussion, said there were 232 political prisoners across
the country.
Oka said Habibie's administration had freed 109 political
prisoners since last May.
Conquest
He added that the government was studying the plan to release
70 more political prisoners through various presidential leniency
terms.
Hikam said Habibie's regime had no justification at all to
keep political prisoners in jail.
Also speaking in the discussion attended by around 100 people
was criminologist Mulyana W. Kusumah.
Mulyana described the "elimination of rights" as a typical of
the military's desire for "total conquest" of their enemies.
"It's a policy," he said.
He cited how ex-political prisoners were still required to
routinely report to military offices, while their ID cards
carried distinguishing stamps.
Even political bills being deliberated by the House of
Representatives continue the policy through articles barring ex-
political prisoners and their families from holding elected
office, Mulyana said.
He said the stipulation gave the military leeway to carry out
its special security screening -- notorious in the country as
litsus -- for legislative candidates despite it being ruled out
of the bills. (aan)