House slammed over selection of rights commission members
House slammed over selection of rights commission members
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak,
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Human rights activists have accused the House of Representatives
of making political deals during the selection of members of the
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
The selections have raised fresh fears that only the
perpetrators of human rights violations will be protected.
Ifdhal Kasim, from the Institute for Policy Research and
Advocacy (Elsam), said many of the newly elected members had
neither the integrity nor the credibility to unravel rights
abuses blamed on the Indonesian Military (TNI).
"The rights commission may turn into a more useless commission
as some of the new members have bad track records in the
investigation on rights abuses allegedly committed by the TNI in
numerous regions in the past," he told The Jakarta Post on
Wednesday.
On Monday, the House of Representatives' Commission II on
legal affairs picked 23 of 41 candidates proposed by an
independent team to sit on the rights commission. The 1999 Law on
the rights commission orders the House select 35 members.
Most of those selected are either little known or doubtful as
they failed to deliver their mission and vision before the
House's commission II which conducted the fit and proper test.
Hugely experienced and respected candidates, such as the
coordinator of the Foundation of the Center for the Study of
Human Rights (Yapusham), Todung Mulya Lubis, and humanist and
agricultural expert H.S. Dillion, lost their places on the
commission.
Many people believe that the two were scrapped because of
their involvement in the Komnas HAM fact-finding team
investigating the violence surrounding East Timor's vote for
independence in 1999. The team listed a number of military
officials who are currently being tried at the ad hoc Human
Rights Tribunal in Jakarta.
Ifdhal said the military and the government were afraid the
rights commission would backfire on them since it had the
authority to investigate, a law-given privilege unique in the
world.
"I suspect there is a 'political deal' to maintain the
commission as a toothless body," he said.
Asked whether the new composition of Komnas HAM would be
beneficial to the TNI, People's Consultative Assembly deputy
speaker Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo said: "The TNI never impedes the
legal process conducted by the rights body's personnel."
He was speaking on Wednesday after a discussion following the
launch of the translated version of Geoffrey Robertson QC's
Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice,
published by the Norwegian Embassy, Komnas HAM and Solidamor.
Law expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, who led the independent
team to select candidates proposed for Komnas HAM members,
pointed out that the new composition had yet to represent the
country's pluralism.
Elsam co-founder Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, an elected
Komnas HAM members, told the discussion that the rights
commission had lost its strength after the completion of their
masterpiece inquiry on East Timor.
"Please, don't put high expectation on Komnas HAM. It was
formed by the House and the government, and cannot be separated
from political interests.
"The rights commission also depends on how well its partner is
functioning, for example, the state prosecutors who follow up
Komnas HAM inquiries. I cannot promise much, but I will do my
best," Abdul Hakim told the discussion.
Many of the rights commission's inquiries have been abandoned
or are yet to be prosecuted, including the shootings of East
Jakarta's Tanjung Priok residents in Sept. 12, 1984 and the
series of shootings of Jakarta students known as the Trisakti,
Semanggi I and Semanggi II incidents in 1998 and 1999.