Legal, political aspects 'neglected' in rights cases
Legal, political aspects 'neglected' in rights cases
JAKARTA (JP): A member of the National Commission on Human
Rights, Marzuki Darusman, pointed out yesterday that legal and
political aspects were often neglected when reproaching human
rights cases here.
"When looking at Indonesia we must differentiate between human
rights abuses with legal violations, which people abroad don't
do... it makes it seem like there's a perpetual violation of
human rights here," said Marzuki, who is the commission's deputy
chairman.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with members of the
European Parliament, Marzuki said he told the visiting delegation
that the "political and legal dimension" had to be differentiated
when talking about alleged rights violations here.
"There have been cases where typical human rights violations
occurred, but there have been other cases which were purely law
violations," he said.
While maintaining that the commission strongly held the
universal values of human rights, Marzuki said various incidents
should not all be lumped as human rights violations.
A 12-member delegation of the European Parliament-Indonesia
Friendship Association (EPIFA) is currently on a three-day visit
here as guests of the House of Representatives.
"It was a constructive discussion, and the commission and
EPIFA have also agreed to start up channels of communication with
each other," Marzuki said.
During yesterday's meeting, the delegation queried the
commission on prevalent issues, such as jailed labor leader
Muchtar Pakpahan, the fate of the imprisoned members of the
unrecognized Democratic People's Party (PRD) and the issue of
East Timor.
Marzuki said he explained to the delegation that the Pakapahan
and PRD cases were "legal cases that were still in progress".
He said Pakpahan already received the necessary legal defense
and health facilities for his illness while in jail.
"So, from a humanitarian point of view, we told the EPIFA
delegation that there were no immediate rights problems in the
Pakpahan and PRD cases," Marzuki said.
Pakpahan is serving a four-year prison term after the Supreme
Court controversially annulled its own ruling which freed
Pakpahan from all charges imposed on him by a Medan court.
Pakpahan was found guilty of inciting a mass labor riot in
Medan in 1994.
Over a dozen young members of PRD in Jakarta and Surabaya,
East Java, were jailed last year for undermining the state
ideology Pancasila.
Marzuki said the delegation raised the questions on the jailed
activists in reaction to what they read in a human rights report
published by Amnesty International, referring to the cases as
"trials of thoughts". (aan)