Reinvestigate Tg Priok bloodshed: Kontras
Reinvestigate Tg Priok bloodshed: Kontras
JAKARTA (JP): The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims
of Violence (Kontras) has demanded the national rights body
reinvestigate the 1984 Tanjung Priok bloodshed.
Amid protests that the rights body be dissolved, Kontras also
demanded on Friday that the reinvestigation be conducted by a
different set of people representing the National Commission on
Human Rights.
Munir, the coordinator of the Kontras' board, told a news
conference that the report from the investigation team should be
retracted, echoing earlier demands from protesters and other
activists.
The rights body has been "busy seeking justifications and
excuses for forgiveness for the rights abusers," he said.
Kontras stated earlier that the National Commission had
committed a "political and legal scandal" following the
investigation team's meeting with officers at the military
headquarters in Cilangkap.
The meeting reportedly stressed concessions which Kontras
charged would affect the investigators' neutrality.
The investigation team's recommendations, Munir said on
Friday, "contrast with the obligation (of the team) to push for
legal accountability".
On June 16, National Commission chairman Djoko Soegianto
reported to the legislature that the team which was formed to
investigate the 1984 shootings found no evidence of intentional
mass killing.
The rights body also said it had no legal power to conduct a
further investigation, and said the report would soon be
submitted to the central government, the military chief and the
House of Representatives.
However, Munir said, "Legally, it is the National Commission
on Human Rights which should conduct a (further) investigation."
A new law on the national rights body gives it more power than
it previously had.
Munir added that the investigation into the 1984 incident made
"fatal" and "substantial" mistakes because the National
Commission failed to base inquiries on conventions regarding
crimes by the state.
The use of conventions on ordinary rights abuses contrasted
the commission's claim that it was investigating "severe" human
rights abuses, he added.
Munir said the commission should have included conventions on
war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide.
The international conventions used by the commission included
the code of conduct for law enforcement officials and the
declaration of basic principles of justice for victims of crime
and abuse of power.
Munir cited statements in the investigation report which he
said were irrelevant.
"(The report) said severe human rights abuse done by the
masses included provocation," Munir said. "There is not one
international convention which states provocation is a human
rights abuse."
He also cited a statement in the report on one of the causes
of rights violations which refers to the negligence of security
officers, which it said led to excessive reaction.
"This would simply mean that there was no human rights abuse,
because negligence only leads to inaction, it cannot induce
overreacting," Munir said.
The report said 33 lives were lost, including nine killed by
the masses, and 36 others were tortured by soldiers in the Sept.
12, 1984 incident.
The results showed that the national rights body, Munir said,
"does not know what should be investigated from a crime by the
state through to its elements". (10)