Victims see potential in commission
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Despite lingering skepticism, victims of human rights abuses have urged the soon to be officiated Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) to start its task of revealing the truth behind unresolved human rights cases.
"This (the role of KKR) is important because many victims and their families have been frustrated as they have not received any response to their cries for justice," said Sipon bin Dyah Sujirah, who represented victims, during an international seminar on the commission here on Wednesday.
Sipon is the wife of poet Wiji Thukul, who along with dozens of other pro-democracy activists went missing from his hometown in Surakarta, Central Java, in 1998, the year the Soeharto-led New Order regime collapsed.
Law No. 27/2004 on the truth and reconciliation commission has been criticized because of its poor conceptual framing, and because of the commission's limited authority in carrying out their investigations.
The commission is tasked with investigating past human rights abuses case by case, making it impossible to prosecute the state or certain institutions believed to be responsible. The commission also has no authority to force perpetrators to give testimony.
Conference participants have also expressed their skepticism since several candidates sitting in the 21-member commission were former military and police officials, or were closely linked to the military.
Her Sri Setiawan, an ex-political prisoner who was freed from Buru Island in 1979, said KKR should go ahead with its mission, although he himself was pessimistic that it would succeed.
"After waiting for more than three decades, I myself have given up hope because justice for the mass killings in the 1965 tragedy and its aftermath has not yet been upheld. I don't believe in the government, the courts, the House of Representatives or any other state institutions," he said.
Her, who came back to Indonesia several months ago after living for many years in the Netherlands, served a nine-year jail sentence on Buru Island, North Sulawesi, until 1979, for being a member of the cultural institution Lekra, which had affiliations to the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
"We already had an ad hoc court, but almost all perpetrators who went on trial for rights abuses such as in East Timor, Tanjungpriok and Abepura were acquitted. If a court such as this fails, what can a commission do?" he asked.
He suggested that victims of human rights abuses form their own associations to allow them to meet regularly and also to fight for justice. "Reconciliation is something which is still in the sky."
Marcie Mersky, a member of the Guatemalan Truth Commission, hailed the establishment of the government-sanctioned KKR as a good start to allow victims to obtain a sense of justice.
Despite its shortcomings, the KKR was expected to give a positive response to victims' demand for truth and justice, she said.
"The most important thing is to ensure that (the commission) begins its mission to seek the truth behind the unresolved cases," she said, adding that reconciliation would occur following the truth seeking and the rewriting of stories on the right abuses.