Komnas HAM sluggish in responding to major cases

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Efforts to break the circle of impunity in the country hit a snag on Thursday as the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) further delayed the announcement of its response to an inquiry of three high profile violent incidents in Jakarta a few years ago.

During a plenary meeting presided over by chairman Djoko Soegianto, the commission decided to postpone the hearing until April 22 to assess the results of the inquiry.

"We need extra time to determine whether the report is substantial enough to prove that gross human rights violations took place in the 1998 and 1999 incidents," Komnas HAM secretary- general Asmara Nababan said.

The commission also decided to set up an internal team to follow up the inquiry should the upcoming meeting find that the inquiry's report is inconclusive or incomplete.

Asmara said the team would be mandated to exercise Komnas HAM's subpoena rights to resummon a number of military and police officers, including former Indonesia Military chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto, who has rejected the existence of the inquiry saying that both Komnas HAM and its inquiry team are unlawful.

The military and police institutions have affirmed that they will file an objection with the court should the commission enforce the subpoena, which obviously will delay the investigation.

Asmara said the commission members expected that the inquiry would succeed in providing evidence that the killing of dozens of people, including protesting students, could be categorized as a crime against humanity.

"We have to make sure that the report's conclusion clearly shows that there were systematic and widespread policies taken by the government to harm the people and that there were attacks against the masses before bringing the case to the state investigators," he explained.

The absence of inquiry team leader Albert Hasibuan, who is overseas, was another underlying cause of the delay, said Asmara.

The assessment of the report was initially scheduled to take place on Tuesday but was then aborted because Djoko was sick, although the regular meeting could still proceed since the floor had reached the quorum.

Amid the controversy raised by the military and police institutions over the tenure of the members of Komnas HAM which should have expired last September according to a 1999 law on the rights commission, the inquiry completed its report last month. It recommends that the Attorney General's Office name 50 security officers as suspects on charges of crimes against humanity.

The inquiry team found that "the killings took place with the full involvement of the security officers who used their power, as well as their weapons, in an excessive way for the sake of certain political interests".

Many human rights activists said they believed the delay would only pave the way for bargaining between related parties to stop the legal process of the alleged human rights abuses.