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.