'Reconciliation does not shelve justice'

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara said on Tuesday that reconciliation would not stop the legal process against rights abusers or justify impunity.

Abdul Hakim said the state could not exempt rights abusers from the law as the commission would just be responsible for providing compensation and rehabilitation for the victims.

According to him, the concept of truth and reconciliation as stipulated in the People's Consultative Assembly Decree No. V/2000 was aimed at publicizing the truth about whether gross human rights violations had taken place.

"Indeed, the reconciliation process demands that the state conduct a thorough investigation into possible rights abuses," he said.

Investigations are necessary to identify the perpetrators of a number of rights abuses, the number of victims and the state's role in the incident, he added.

"If abuses occurred due to an improper state policy, we can learn from it and review the policy. I'm sure that such a probe can also lead us to legal and administrative reforms," Abdul Hakim told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a seminar on national reconciliation here on Tuesday.

Experts and human rights activists have expressed doubt over the work of the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) to resolve past human rights abuses, saying it would merely reveal some facts, but would not bring about true justice, which has long been sought by the victims.

Many have also said the new commission could be a way for those implicated in past right abuses to show remorse.

Other critics warned that the commission would just serve as a new method to expunge all human right abuses, therefore providing the perpetrators with virtual impunity.

The bill on KKR does not spell out a clause stipulating that those found guilty of violating human rights would automatically be brought to justice. The bill very specifically says that all cases which are resolved by KKR will not go to court.

The human rights court, endorsed by the government in 2000, has seen the trials of servicemen and civilians involved in atrocities in East Timor in 1999 and the Tanjung Priok bloodshed in 1984.

But Abdul Hakim insisted that the very definition of reconciliation included a full legal process.

"Trials at the ad hoc rights tribunal are considered part of what reconciliation means if the judges manage to deliver verdicts that fulfill the sense of justice," he said.

Abdul Hakim further suggested that the government set a ruling on amnesty if the perpetrators admitted their wrongdoings.

"But the president has an option to decline an appeal for clemency by perpetrators who have come forward under an amnesty program," he said.

Meanwhile, political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Syamsuddin Harris urged the government to immediately draft a law on witness protection, saying it would encourage people to testify about many human rights abuses which might be hidden under the carpet due to fear.

He expressed pessimism that such reconciliation could strengthen law enforcement in the country.

"Instead of sentencing perpetrators for their crimes, judges in the country always send the whistle blowers to jail," Syamsuddin said.