Rights body to focus on political cases

JAKARTA (JP): Deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Marzuki Darusman, says that in the future the commission will be more "politically oriented".

The commission will pay more attention to political cases and reduce its attention to what Marzuki described as "common cases." Up to now, the commission has often had to deal with complaints on land appropriations or the effects of high-voltage power plants on people's health.

"We expect to be more political-oriented in the future," Marzuki said at a luncheon held by the Indonesian Executive Circle yesterday. "The rights commission will concentrate more on how to better supervise government's policies."

He stressed, however, that changes in the commission's orientation would be made gradually.

He said that the commission has started shifting its orientation recently by starting to deal with cases that arise from the government's long-term policies and from poor law enforcement. It has also begun to concentrate more on the question of people's political rights.

The commission has recently stated that it will review laws which allegedly abuse human rights.

He cited the laws on the press, newspaper publishing licenses and political parties as examples of laws which need to be reviewed.

The commission, together with a number of non-governmental organizations, is currently making an inventory of laws which may go against human rights.

Commission Secretary-General Baharuddin Lopa said last week that the commission has made a list of priority law reviews. "The top priority is a review of the anti-subversion law," he said.

Marzuki said the commission is currently kept busy with common cases like land and labor disputes.

He said that the commission has received reports on more than 4,000 cases since it was established in 1993. "We receive two to three reports a day," he added.

The commission was established under Presidential Decree No. 50/1993. The decree states that the rights commission will only make recommendations in settling disputes and avoid interfering in cases which are already heard by the courts.

Twenty-five Indonesians from various fields were appointed as the commission's members. Former Supreme Court chief justice Ali Said was appointed commission chief.

A number of members of the House of Representatives recently criticized the rights commission for having acted beyond its authority and areas of responsibility.

Marzuki said several tasks of the commission can be handled by the political parties, the House or legal institutions.

Marzuki called for political reforms yesterday in order to improve the commission's performance.

"The rights commission will do better in a more conducive political condition," he said, as quoted by Antara.(imn)