'Reconciliation knows no limit': Minister

JAKARTA: All human rights cases that cannot be settled in court should be presented to the reconciliation commission regardless of what year the abuses took place, a minister says.

In order to avoid confusion, however, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said on Thursday that cases prior to Aug. 17, 1945 should not be presented to the commission.

The commission has yet to be set up.

He made the statement at a hearing with the House of Representative's special commission in charge of deliberating the bill on the truth and reconciliation commission (KKR).

He said reconciliation would help the nation have a better future.

Yusril said that human rights abuses in the country would be brought to court as long as there was enough evidence and witnesses. "And of course, if it is clear who the suspect is," Yusril said.

But if the evidence and the witnesses were not clear, the human rights abuses would be settled through the commission, he said. - JP