Marzuki denies any pressure on rights body

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.

Human rights -- Page 2