Marzuki denies any pressure on rights body

By Ati Nurbaity

MANILA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights denies being pressured by the military during its investigation into the July 27 riots in Jakarta.

Commission member Marzuki Darusman said before attending an international seminar on human rights, democracy and development here yesterday that "there have been discussions with the military but no pressure".

"The military has been very cooperative," said Marzuki, who is a member of the fact-finding team that the commission established to detect possible human rights abuses and to trace the missing.

"We have gained access to 17 hospitals including the military and police hospitals," he said.

Marzuki was commenting on a press release from the Jakarta Institute for Social Affairs, a voluntary team supporting the commission's fact-finding team. The statement said that the institute's members detected "a strong aura of fear" among people when they were asked to give information.

A source said employees at the Cilincing crematorium, for instance, "stammered" when asked if any unidentified bodies had been cremated there following the rioting.

The houses of those who were injured during the rioting "were tightly guarded" when members of the institute stopped by.

Marzuki declined to comment on the release. He said only that more time is needed to allow those with information to feel less "inhibited".

"That is why the Commission cannot set a deadline (to announce the results of its investigation). Time is needed for the public to feel uninhibited in revealing information," Marzuki said.

The commission also needs time to re-check the number of injured civilians, security personnel and other data.

"Those findings are not final and constitute something the government must follow up," Marzuki said. "Whether the government will really carry it out depends on public supervision."

On Monday, human rights advocate T. Mulya Lubis, also a participant at the talks organized by the Germany-based Friedrich Ebert Stiftung organization, said the investigation "reflects classic problems of fact-finding missions everywhere."

Until the government guarantees confidentiality and legal protection for people who reveal information, "fact-finding missions will not be effective," he said.

Anyone pressuring people and creating a climate of fear to get information is "obstructing justice," Mulya said.

Such a practice would be a violation of internationally recognized human rights and result in inadequate information, he said.

Another common problem is security personnel taking retaliatory measures on victims from the rioting or those closest to the victims.

Unless the government protects potential witnesses and victims from possible pressures, "I fear that this could...be institutionalized and we will turn into a republic of fear," he said.

What the National Commission on Human Rights could at least do now, he added, is set up a special post box.

"If this measure cannot guarantee confidentiality, then I do not know where the people can seek protection," Mulya commented.

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