Right body wants judicial power
Right body wants judicial power
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has called
for a revision of human rights Law No.39/1999, to empower it with
the right to press state institutions to follow up on the
findings of its investigations.
Komnas HAM Chairman Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara complained on
Tuesday that some of the commission's findings were not followed
up on by state institutions, rendering its investigations
useless.
"The commission must be given the right to file lawsuits
against institutions that do not follow up on its findings. We
propose that the law be revised," Abdul Hakim said on the
sidelines of a hearing with the House's Commission III for law
and legislation, human rights and security affairs here on
Tuesday.
He also asked the House of Representatives (DPR) to carry out
a performance audit aimed at assessing the work of the commission
and other state institutions -- including the National Police and
the Attorney General's Office (AGO) -- which have received
recommendations from the commission but failed to follow up on
them.
"Such an audit would verify whether the commission and the AGO
have carried out their respective duties properly. Then, we will
know the problem," he said.
Taking the cases as examples, Abdul Hakim said that the
commission had declared the Trisakti shootings and May 1998
riots, as well as the bloody incidents of Semanggi I and Semanggi
II in 1999, as gross violations of human rights.
The national commission had recommended that the AGO follow up
on its findings, which it has not done to this day.
Abdul Hakim said the AGO has refused to talk about the
commission's recommendations.
The AGO declined to follow up on the commission's findings on
the grounds that the House had declared the incidents "ordinary
human rights violations".
During a hearing with the commission earlier, legislators
promised to reopen those cases.
Trimedya Panjaitan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI-P) said, during Tuesday's hearing, that the House
could be held accountable for the uncertain legal process of the
human rights violation cases.
"The legislators are morally accountable, because they
declared those incidents to be ordinary violations," Trimedya
said, referring to the House's investigation led by Panda
Nababan, a fellow legislator from the PDI-P.
Alluding to public demand for an investigation into human
rights violations allegedly involving Soeharto, he said that most
cases of rights violations had been handled by the police.
The July 27 case has been handled by police, while the Tanjung
Priok case has been taken to court, but rights cases allegedly
involving Soeharto, including the mysterious shooting (Petrus) in
the 1980s and the Buru case -- which saw hundreds of people
linked to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) jailed without
trial -- have not been investigated.