LBH predicts rights record to worsen

LBH predicts rights record to worsen

JAKARTA (JP): Human rights activists predicted yesterday that
Indonesia's human rights record and legal condition would see no
improvement next year.

"As long as the law is still considered subordinate to the
government's politics, as is the character of the New Order
regime, the situation will remain the same," said the Jakarta
office of the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in its year-end
evaluation delivered by its director Apong Herlina here
yesterday.

"And as long as human rights is still placed within the power
holders' framework of power, the list of human rights violations
will be even longer next year," she said.

This year's economic woes and next March's political power
struggle would also color the country's legal and human rights
records, Apong said.

The socioeconomic crisis, which she said "can hardly be
handled by the government" as reflected by the rising price of
staple food, could lead to increasing "social pathology".

She said massive layoffs, land disputes, violence by legal
apparatus, violations of people's freedom of expression and the
right to assemble, divorce and domestic violence, and sexual
violence, were examples of the rising social pathology.

"Those issues will be rife next year, directly or indirectly
influenced by the country's socioeconomic and sociopolitical
conditions," she said.

According to Apong, never before during the New Order era had
an economic crisis affected so many people, either from the lower
or the middle class.

"Unless the rising problems are tackled seriously and the law
is implemented justly, it is very possible that more social
upheavals will color the country's legal scene next year," she
said.

Concerning human rights violations, Apong said: "It's very
difficult to expect a decrease in the number of violations."

She said the current political power, which tends to maintain
the status quo, had "repressed" demands for change.

Apong was accompanied yesterday by the institute's land
division head Dewi Novirianti, criminal division head Daniel
Panjaitan, and special division head Paulus Mahulette.

Reflecting on the past year's legal scene and human rights
records, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute said the number of
complaints it had received had increased from past years.

This year alone, Apong said, the institute's criminal division
had received 225 cases, labor division 280 cases, land division
114, and special division 529 cases.

"The increased number every year signifies that the institute
is still trusted and needed by the public," Apong said.

The institute also noted the problems affecting workers here
and abroad. It cited the beheading of an Indonesian female worker
in Saudi Arabia, and reproached the government for being too slow
to respond to the case.

"The government has not been responsible enough for the fate
of its people when faced with such a serious situation," the
institute said.

The public uproar over the execution, and the planned
beheading of fellow worker Nasiroh, indicated the public's
increasing legal awareness, the institute said.

"Public criticism and protest effectively pressured the
government to take action (and save Nasiroh from the same fate),"
it said. (aan)