Rights abuses remain rife in 2001

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Human rights abuses involving the state remain rife as the economic crisis continues to batter Indonesia, a local human rights watchdog says.

Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), an affiliation of the Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), predicts that the situation will not improve next year.

In its year-end assessment of human rights, LBH Jakarta notes that the state has committed various human rights violations in its search for foreign aid.

Like other developing countries, Indonesia was currently in the grip of globalization where economic considerations came above human rights respect, LBH Jakarta acting chairman Paulus R. Mahulette told a discussion last week on the institution's year- end assessment.

"This neo-liberal regime doesn't favor social movements such as labor unions or any other civil society organizations. The economic-oriented programs are initiated to meet the requirements to obtain foreign aid. People's interest receives a lower priority. Schemes such as privatization has become major causes of rights violations this year," Paulus said.

The grim conditions had, in fact, been predicted by the institute last year due to the return of the repressive security approach. The government had also failed to show commitment to democratization and law enforcement.

Throughout the year, the institute, which works in favor of the needy, received 1,280 cases. They are handled by four divisions: labor issues, civil and political rights, women and children, and urban affairs.

The cases include the violation of a right to education because of the privatization of universities which caused school fees to rocket, massive layoffs, and threats to workers' freedom of association and expression.

LBH Jakarta also said that the law and the government had yet to defend common people's interests. This was obvious in decisions by the courts which ruled mainly in favor of the rich, and the continuing eviction of the poor in urban areas to make way for development projects.

It noted cases where the powerful hire hoodlums to attack protesting laborers and the urban poor, setting the stage for communal conflicts.

The institute also reported efforts to suppress human rights activists during the year, including character assassination to murder attempts.

"We predict that in 2002, the human rights situation will remain a mess, and that the people's sense of justice will still be hurt, because the law enforcers and the law do not protect them," LBH Jakarta said in its report.