Reopening of Lampung case opposed

JAKARTA: A small group of people claiming to be victims and their relatives of a bloody 1989 clash in the village of Talangsari went to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Wednesday to reject a plan to reopen the case.

Calling themselves the National Reconciliation Movement (GIN), the group said victims of the clash had come to terms with the past and absolved the military personnel involved in the incident through an Islamic reconciliatory settlement, known as islah.

"We are against all efforts to reopen the case, as we know it would end up pitting the families of the victims against the Indonesian Military (TNI)," the group leader Nur Hidayat said during a meeting with the head of the commission's team of inquiry into possible rights violation in Talangsari, Hasballah M. Sa'ad.

Hidayat said an investigation into the incident would just benefit non-governmental organizations like the Commision for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), which has long sought real justice in the case.

A banner unfurled by the group in front of the Komnas HAM office read "Dissolve Kontras at once" and "We don't want anyone to take advantage of our plight."

Kontras has linked the alleged rights abuse to A.M. Hendropriyono, the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief who was the military commander in Lampung in 1989.

Hasballah maintained that the commission had decided to launch a full investigation into the clash following a thorough study of the case. -- JP