Victims of rights abuses seek justice

Victims of rights abuses seek justice

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the renewed focus on the government's slowness in
establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR),
victims of human rights abuses and the relatives of those killed
by government forces are demanding justice.

Supported by rights activists, they are insisting the
government puts a priority on solving human rights violations
that took place in the aftermath of 1965 coup attempt, blamed on
the Indonesian Communist Party, until the resignation of former
dictator Soeharto in 1998.

The commission, which was supposed to be up and running in
April, has yet to hear a case, pending the president's selection
of 21 of 42 candidates put forward by the House of
Representatives.

Two women, Ibu Bambang and Ruminah, represent parents whose
children were killed in the May 1998 rioting in Jakarta. They
said that with or without the commission, they would continue to
seek the truth behind the three-day rampage, which saw thousands
of people die in burning buildings. There have long been
allegations that soldiers prevented people inside the buildings,
many of them suspected of looting, from leaving.

The women said their children were neither thieves nor looters
but ended up victims of the security authorities.

"For the sake of justice, all the victims and their relatives
have the right to know the truth ... the perpetrators must
confess their wrongdoing and those who committed genocide, crimes
against humanity or just minor crimes, must be brought to
justice," Ruminah said at the second day of an international
conference on the commission here on Tuesday.

The three-day event that will conclude on Wednesday is
organized by the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy
(Elsham), the European Union, the German Friedrich Ebert
Foundation, New Zealand's International Aid and Development
Agency and The Jakarta Post.

Ibu Bambang said people were primarily focused on restoring
their or their loved ones' dignity, not compensation or
retribution for their suffering.

"Our children were the victims in the incident, although they
were not thieves or looters, and we had never told them to steal
from or to loot department stores," she said. Seven years later,
she and her family still wondered why her son, a student of the
University of Indonesia, was killed in the tragedy.

Cipta Lesmana, a candidate for the commission, drew many angry
looks when he told the meeting he supported the use of force when
handling rioters.

Cipta, a lawyer with former State Intelligence Agency (BIN)
chief Hendropriyono's firm Hendropriyono Law Office. accused
rioters of looting shops and department stores. BIN operatives
have also been accused of rights abuses.

Her Sri Setiawan, a former political prisoner who spent years
in exile on Buru Island, North Maluku, said that to be
independent and reliable, the commission should provide a special
place where victims of rights abuses to could testify and have
them recorded to ensure an objective analysis and investigation
was carried out.

"We have not pursued compensation from the outset, because the
state would go bankrupt if it had to pay all its victims. What we
are demanding is that we are heard, that our dignity as human
beings is reinstated and that the state apologizes to the public
for the past human rights abuses," he said.

Her was jailed for being a member of the Indonesian Communist
Party-affiliated Lekra cultural institute.

Activist Atnike Nova Sigiro said the establishment of the
commission would be meaningless if it followed in the footsteps
of other human rights tribunals. Courts here have acquitted or
released most of the more than 30 soldiers, police and civilians
charged with involvement in crimes against humanity in the East
Timor, Tanjung Priok and the Abepura conflicts.

Marcie Mersky of Guatemala said the KKR could start its duties
by listing all major human rights cases as a similar commission
in Guatemala (CEH) did.

After making the list, she said, the commission could then
start taking the accounts of the victims and perpetrators, seek
the necessary documents from the authorities and complete the
investigation with exhumations of bodies when necessary.