Truth commission's brief includes '65 killings

Truth commission's brief includes '65 killings

JAKARTA (JP): A draft law proposes that the planned commission
for truth and reconciliation focus its tasks on settlement of
gross human rights violations which occurred between 1965 and
1989, a member of the team drawing up the bill said on Tuesday.

Ifdhal Kasim from the Institute for Policy Research and
Advocacy, who represents the nongovernmental organizations in the
team of drafters, said the limitation was a technical matter.

He said while human rights violations occurred in the lead up
to the fall of the government of founding president Sukarno in
1965, it was more realistic for the commission to trace human
rights violations that happened about 35 years ago, where
witnesses, survivors and victims were still alive.

"The interval of time is not too long, so the commission can
work on cases that occurred within the span of this period," he
told journalists on the sidelines of a dialog with members of
South Africa's truth commission here.

Ifdhal maintained that there had been no official explanation
of the bloodshed that followed the 1965 abortive coup that was
blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Nobody knows the exact number of people killed in the
military-backed operation to root out suspected communists, but
foreign reports put the toll at 500,000.

The descendants of PKI supporters have been forbidden to enter
governmental institutions or the military, or to join political
groupings and have been hampered in the obtaining of public
facilities. Their identity cards had been stamped with a special
mark revealing their political status until last year.

"The commission is tasked with unveiling the truth of the 1965
case and furthermore putting history back on track," he added.

According to the draft, the fifth since the drafting started
in February, the commission is entitled to recommend that the
President grant amnesty to human rights perpetrators, provided
that they confess their guilt before the commission.

The commission will be selected by a special team in
consultation with the House of Representatives.

Alex Boraine, visiting deputy chairman of the South African
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, warned that reconciliation
will face resistance.

"You need reconciliation, and it needs commitment from the
government, institutions, and society. It's painful, but you have
to face up to the truth of the past because you can't build a new
society on lies," the professor of law at New York University
remarked.

"And by obtaining public acknowledgement of the past, you can
avoid committing similar crimes." (bby)