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.