Women win human rights honor

Women win human rights honor

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Woman activists Suraiya Kamaruzzaman and Ester Jusuf Purba have
been declared the joint winners of this year's Yap Thiam Hien
human rights award.

Todung Mulya Lubis, the executive director of the Center for
Human Rights Studies (Yapusham), said during a media conference
on Friday that both Suraiya and Ester had dedicated their lives
to defending the rights of Indonesian women.

The award will be presented to the winners on Monday at the
National Museum.

Todung said Suraiya was chosen in recognition of her efforts
to enhance social and economic status of Acehnese women and
encourage them to fight against violence perpetrated by the
military, while Ester was picked because of her struggle against
racial discrimination, especially against Indonesians of Chinese
descent.

Suraiya, a lecturer at the Banda Aceh-based Syah Kuala
University, was born in Lam U village in Aceh Besar on June 3,
1968. Her efforts to defend Acehnese women started when she was
still a student at the university.

In a bid to root out the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), former
president Soeharto declared Aceh to be a military operation area
in 1989, a situation that lasted until 1998 when Soeharto
resigned. During that period, thousands of women and children
were allegedly tortured, raped, and intimidated by the security
forces. Some of them were forced to leave their homes and became
refugees in other regions.

Meanwhile, Ester, a mother of two, was born in Malang, Central
Java, on Jan. 15, 1971. She is known for her strong criticism of
the government's discriminative policies towards minority groups.

Todung said the award was presented annually in memory of Yap
Thiam Hien, a noted Indonesian lawyer who dedicated his life to
the struggle for human rights protection in the country. The
award was first presented in 1992.

The panel members included the rector of the State Institute
of Islamic Studies (IAIN), Azyumardi Azra, respected Surabaya
lawyer Trimoelja D. Soerjadi, Surabaya-based Airlangga University
law professor Soetandyo Wignyosoebroto, Semarang-based Diponegoro
University law professor Maria S.W. Sumardjono and Atma Jaya
University sociologist Mely G. Tan, he said.

Last year's recipient was Wardah Hafiz, chairman of the Urban
Poor Consortium (UPC), a non-governmental organization helping to
protect the rights of those victimized by Jakarta administration
development programs.