Sandyawan receives Yap Thiam Hien award

JAKARTA (JP): Ignatius Sandyawan Sumardi, a Jesuit Catholic priest who made headlines for sheltering wanted activists charged with inciting the July 27 riots, received the Yap Thiam Hien human rights award yesterday.

Some 700 people, mostly activist students, packed the Atrium Hall at the World Trade Center on Jl. Sudirman to pay homage to Sandyawan, the fifth person to win the laurels since 1992.

The 38-year-old priest runs the Jakarta Social Institute, a non-governmental organization actively helping street children, laborers, and poor people caught in land disputes. Yesterday he implied in his speech his defense of his decision to harbor Budiman Sudjatmiko, leader of the now outlawed Democratic People's Party (PRD), and his colleagues.

"It is our moral responsibility to take sides with the weak, defending those who have fallen victim to injustice in our society," he said. "A real pro-democratic movement, therefore, must be a realization of solidarity with the poor."

But Sandyawan said the idea of empowering the poor was neither a carbon copy of Western charity programs nor an ideological following of capitalism or Marxism.

Diplomats from Canada, Finland, France, Sweden, the United States and the Vatican, lawyers, intellectuals, public figures and human rights activists were present yesterday.

Sandyawan was also awarded Rp 3 million (US$1,300) in cash. Around 150 of Sandyawan's foster children joined the award presentation.

The award, named after a late prominent Indonesian human rights activist and lawyer, was first issued in 1992. Previous recipients include human rights activists H.J.C. Princen, Trimoelja D. Soerjadi and Ade Rostina Sitompul, slain labor activist Marsinah, and farmers of the Jenggawah village in Jember regency who were caught in a clash with security officers when defending their land from appropriation.

This annual award presentation is organized by the Center for Human Rights Studies (Yapusham) in conjunction with International Human Rights Day which falls on Dec. 10.

The center's executive director, human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis, said the panel of judges had a tough time picking Sandyawan from the five well-deserving nominees. (08/amd)

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