Kontras report reveals rights abuses worsening

Kontras report reveals rights abuses worsening

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's human rights record worsened in 2001 as the state
continued to neglect its obligations to promote and protect human
rights, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) said.

In its annual report released on Monday, Kontras said that the
administrations of both former president Abdurrahman Wahid,
familiarly known as Gus Dur, and President Megawati Soekarnoputri
had failed to show a commitment to upholding the people's civil
and political rights in 2001.

"What we see is only a tug-of-war between political interests,
but we have yet to see efforts to strengthen the institutions
that handle human rights issues or the refining of legal
mechanisms," Kontras coordinator Ori Rahman said during a
discussion organized in conjunction with the launching of its
annual report titled Human Rights in Stagnation: Report on Human
Rights Conditions in Indonesia in 2001.

Highlighting the unrestrained human rights abuses in 2001, Ori
said that the country's rights records was only likely to worsen
in 2002 and beyond.

Kontras noted that efforts to protect victims and to make
people more aware of human rights issues were neglected in 2001,
and that both Gus Dur and Megawati had failed to prevent more
rights violations.

"This is indicated by the appointment of those who were
responsible for many rights abuses to strategic positions in the
country," Kontras said.

The appointment of A.M. Hendropriyono and Da'i Bachtiar as the
National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and National Police chiefs
respectively has come under fire because of their alleged past
human rights abuses.

Hendropriyono has been accused of human rights abuses in
Lampung in 1989, in what became known as the Talangsari
intimidation, while demands have been made for Da'i to account
for the shooting dead of five supporters of Gus Dur in Bondowoso,
East Java, in 2000.

"The military and police still have the power to influence the
state's policy with regard to human rights issues," Ori said.

Many past human rights abusers have been left untouched,
including those responsible for the 1984 mass slaying in Tanjung
Priok, North Jakarta; the 1989 intimidation in Talangsari,
Lampung; the 1998 and 1999 shootings of student activists and
citizens; and the unsolved kidnappings of at least 1,039 people,
14 of whom have not been heard from since.

Meanwhile, repressive action against secessionist movements in
Aceh and Irian Jaya was still ongoing, and the social conflicts
in other regions of the country, such as Maluku, Central
Sulawesi's Poso and Central Kalimantan's Sampit had yet to be
resolved.

Kontras concluded that the latest government-backed peace
deals for Maluku and Poso had failed to change the quality of
violence in those regions, violence that also involved the
military.