Victims see potential in commission

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.