Rights body accepts court rejection
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) will not appeal Central Jakarta District Court chief M. Saleh's controversial refusal to subpoena dozens of retired and active military and police officers in connection with the 1998 May riots.
"Our term (for investigating the case) ends in September. We must finish our work in time and appealing the decision will require more time," Salahuddin Wahid, who leads Komnas HAM's ad hoc team investigating the riots, said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Komnas HAM has given the team six months, from March to September this year, to finish its investigation.
He also said he was not sure whether Komnas HAM would gain public support over the issue.
"The only one who pays attention to efforts to unravel the May riots are rights observers and the victims or their families," Salahuddin complained.
He said the team would present its results to the Attorney General's Office.
"Our investigation revealed that there had been gross human rights violations during the riots," said Salahuddin, who is also the deputy chief of Komnas HAM.
Komnas HAM has so far issued three summonses, none of which were answered by the officers involved. Salahuddin insisted that Komnas HAM had only wanted to question the officers as witnesses, not as suspects.
"All we need is their clarification over the situation during the incidents," Salahuddin said.
Separately, human rights campaigner Ifdhal Kasim of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) said that appealing a court decision would pose another problem for Komnas HAM since it is not stipulated by law.
Law No. 39/1999 only stipulates that Komnas HAM may ask a district court chief to approve its request for a subpoena.
"The court chief has gone too far. He should not have ruled in view of the substance of the case since the law maintains that a district court chief should not deny Komnas HAM's rights for a subpoena," he said.
Ifdhal said that the court chief had taken political aspects into consideration in reaching his decision rather than relying on pure legal aspects.
The court's decision, he said, had set a bad precedent for future human rights investigations.
"The court should have supported efforts to investigate a rights violation instead of obstructing it," Ifdhal added.
Last year, Central Jakarta District Court chief Rusdy As'ad refused to make any decision over Komnas HAM's request to subpoena several retired and active military and police officials implicated in the 1998 Trisakti and Semanggi shooting incidents against students.
Ifdhal suggested that Komnas HAM monitor the Attorney General's Office after they submitted the results of their investigation to make sure that it acted.
To date, the Attorney General's Office has yet to examine the Trisakti and Semanggi cases, despite the fact that Komnas HAM submitted the cases several years ago.
The 1998 May 13 and May 14 riots, which led to the resignation of President Soeharto, claimed more than 1,200 lives across the country. No security officers were around to prevent the crimes, except for those hired by business owners to guard their assets before the rampage started.
Komnas HAM has expected to shed light on the absence of state security officers during the riots.