Troops clash with students, marring Human Rights Day

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Troops forcefully dispersed a student rally commemorating Human Rights Day here yesterday and beat dozens of participants who refused to budge.

Hundreds of students calling themselves the Committee of People's Action for Change exchanged harsh words with the security personnel who tried to halt the demonstration and make them return to the Gadjah Mada University campus.

After minutes of arguing, the troops broke up the gathering on Jl. C. Simanjuntak, chased them and ordered them into trucks. Several students were beaten with wooden sticks, but there were no reports of casualties.

Yelling slogans, the students began their march at the building of the School of Social and Political Sciences, and proceeded to the campus' main boulevard where they were intercepted by district police and troops.

The students tried to break through the security barricade, but failed. They then made a detour and took another route, but again found they were surrounded by troops.

Chief of the 072/Pamungkas military command of Yogyakarta, Col. Djoko Santoso, said no students had been detained. Those rounded up during the demonstration were returned to the campus.

"They have not been detained. They were returned to the campus. If they want to continue with the demonstration there, they can do so," he said.

In Jakarta, the commemoration of Human Rights Day proceeded more peacefully.

At a seminar jointly held by Kompas daily and the Center for Information and Development Studies (CIDES), observers agreed that Indonesia may have a better human rights record if it established laws to enforce the concept's implementation.

Legal expert Loebby Loqman and secretary-general of the National Security and Defense Council Lt. Gen. (ret) Soekarto suggested that the principles of human rights be turned into laws to ensure implementation.

Loebby said the principles should be developed into an individual law while Soekarno said they should be stipulated in a 1998/2003 decree of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the 1998/2003 State Policy Guidelines.

Loebby said such a law would guarantee "impartiality" on the part of any party involved in efforts to settle human rights disputes.

"Human rights protection principles should be included in a separate law to avoid politically motivated solutions for any dispute," Loebby said.

He said disputes and the infringement of human rights were difficult to solve because they were always related to politics.

Soekarto said detailed principles on human rights protection should be stipulated in an individual MPR decree, while the operational instructions be incorporated in the policy guidelines.

Deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights Marzuki Darusman suggested that ministries and government offices establish telephone hotlines with the rights commission, to promptly respond to public complaints about rights violations.

"We need access to the government so that a dispute can be solved quickly," said Marzuki after addressing Human Rights Day at the United Nations Information Center here yesterday.

The rights commission's secretary-general Baharuddin Lopa called on government officials to set a "good example" in the campaign for human rights promotion.

Lopa, however, declined to say whether this year's human rights record was better or worse than past years.

"Although the number of complaints on rights violations has increased, it's still hard to say that this year's record on rights violations is worse than past years as some of the cases occurred years ago (but were only reported recently).

"This could also be interpreted as people's increased awareness of their basic rights," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said that the commission has, since its establishment in 1993, helped to settle about 5,000 cases of more than 7,700 reported cases.

Speaking about the trend for next year, Lopa said land issues would remain the focal point of conflicts that could lead to violations of human rights.

In Semarang, the 49th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was marked with a student rally held at the Diponegoro University campus. Yelling slogans, 80 students demanded that the government be consistent in the campaign for human rights promotion.

The students marched to the building of the Central Java provincial legislative council to deliver their petition. (23/09/har/aan/imn)