Skepticism greets govt's promise on human rights

JAKARTA (JP): The government's promise to look into a report that concluded that most human rights violations this year were committed by its own officials was greeted with skepticism yesterday.

Sociologist Hotman Siahaan said the government should prove its seriousness with deeds rather than with political statements.

"It certainly presents a dilemma for the government. The violations have something to do with the bureaucracy," the lecturer at Airlangga University told The Jakarta Post.

Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman said Saturday the government would investigate the Center for Human Rights Studies (Yapusham) report.

"If people say violations are being committed, we will look into it to see whether it's true or not," Soesilo was quoted by Antara as saying.

Soesilo said the government would "accept, analyze, and improve the report".

Law professor J. Sahetapy of Airlangga University said the government had shown little concern for human rights from the time of the establishment of New Order until 1993, when the National Commission on Human Rights was founded.

It was almost impossible to be optimistic that the government would investigate the human rights violations it allegedly perpetrated, unless there was public pressure, Sahetapy said.

Yapusham, chaired by Todung Mulya Lubis, said in a report last week that 85 percent of the 194 incidents of human rights violations recorded between January 1995 and March 1996 were committed by the authorities.

Figures

The figures were broken as 71 violations by security officers, 23 by university rectors, and 18 by provincial offices of Social and Political Affairs. The offenses which trampled people's civil and political rights were against freedom of speech and expression, 101 cases, freedom to assemble, 57 cases, and the freedom to follow one's faith, 36 cases.

Hotman said the government's investigation of the human rights violations committed by its own officials was not open.

He said the legislative and judicial branches must exert greater control over the government's behavior.

Hotman cited the police handling of the death of a journalist in Yogyakarta as an example of a human rights violation by the state which was not handled in a transparent manner.

He said police have been leaning hard on the lone suspect, disregarding the National Commission on Human Rights suggestion that there may possibly be alternative suspects.

The police have come under strong criticism for the way they arrested and interrogated the suspect in this case.

Sahetapy said the government should amend existing Criminal Code Procedures, including stipulating more explicitly the procedures of arrest and the questioning of suspects. (08)