Reconciliation bill 'must not be retroactive'
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Irked by allegations of involvement in numerous human rights abuses, spokesmen from the Indonesian Military (TNI) expressed on Tuesday their opposition to a truth and reconciliation commission.
Speaking at a hearing with the House of Representatives special committee drafting the truth and reconciliation commission bill, TNI Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said past mistakes should not be charged under laws that would come into effect later.
"According to universal practices, no law can be applied retroactively," Endriartono explained to the lawmakers.
TNI has also questioned the principle of retroactivity adopted in Law No. 26/2000 on establishment of a human rights court which has seen some of its officers found guilty of involvement in atrocities in East Timor in 1999. Currently, another set of trials is underway for the Tanjung Priok bloodshed of 1984.
Using similar reasoning, they blocked the National Commission of Human Rights' summonses for questioning of officers implicated in incidents in Jakarta known as the Trisakti and Semanggi tragedies in 1998 and 1999, in which several student protesters were shot dead.
The House is deliberating on the formation of the truth commission, which would have the task of settling past human rights violations via investigations and reconciliation meetings between the perpetrators and victims and/or their relatives.
The lawmakers have agreed on the principle of retroactivity, but remain undecided on the extent of the period the commission will cover.
Also speaking at the hearing was Ermaya Suradinata, the head of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas).
Unlike Endriartono, Ermaya suggested that the truth and reconciliation bill should clearly state from which point the human rights violations could be settled through reconciliation.
Responding to the suggestion, chairman of the committee Sidharto Danusubroto, said ideally the legislation could apply to all human rights abuses that had taken place since the country's independence on Aug. 17, 1945.
In the previous hearing, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda had said the truth and reconciliation commission should only go back 30 years, thereby ruling out further investigations into the alleged coup in 1965 and the massive bloodletting that followed.
Only 20 of the 50-member committee were present at Tuesday's hearing, and only five of those seemed to be actively engaged in the debate.
Sidharto expressed his optimism that the truth and reconciliation bill would be completed before the current House members' tenure expired in August next year.
The bill was mandated by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in a decree issued in 2000.
It is intended to settle human rights violations that have not been brought to a close by the current legal system.
It is expected that the perpetrators or witnesses testifying before the commission will apologize to the victims and offer compensation.