TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Obituary: Human rights campaigner Asmara Nababan dies at 64
Leading human rights activist Asmara Nababan died Thursday in Fuda Cancer Hospital, Guangzhou, China, where he was undergoing treatment for lung cancer
Change Size
L
eading human rights activist Asmara Nababan died Thursday in Fuda Cancer Hospital, Guangzhou, China, where he was undergoing treatment for lung cancer. He was 64.
Asmara, who was diagnosed for cancer a year ago, had undergone surgery at Dharmais Hospital in Jakarta earlier. He had also sought treatment in Singapore.
Doctors said his condition worsened after the cancer spread to his heart and brain.
Earlier this month, Asmara was admitted to Gading Pluit Hospital in Jakarta before departing for China on Oct. 12. He died following surgery earlier on Oct. 25.
His body will be laid to rest at his home on Jl. Rasamala Raya No. 31 in Pancoran, South Jakarta, from Sunday to Monday and will lie in state at the office of the National Commission on Human Rights in Central Jakarta on Tuesday morning.
A requiem will be held at Hang Lekiu HKBP Church before he is buried at Tanah Kusir public cemetery on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.
Asmara was born in Siborong-borong, North Tapanuli, North Sumatra, on Sept. 2, 1946. He married Magdalena Helmina Sitorus and had three children.
Asmara’s interest in human rights began when he was a law student at the University of Indonesia in
the 1960s.
He was active a human rights advocate. He took part in an investigation led by the National Commission on Human Rights into mass killings in Aceh in 1994 and in Timika, Papua, in 1995. He was secretary-general of the Commission from 1998 to 2002.
Asmara also handled other cases of human rights abuses, including the bloody takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party’s headquarters on July 27, 1996, the bloody riots in Jakarta and other cities between May 12 and 15, 1998, and the riots following the UN-sanctioned referendum in East Timor in 1999.
He once said that he was often subject to intimidation for his activity but that such threats failed to dampen his spirit.
“My life and fate depend not on human rights abusers but on Almighty God. I am ready to die here and now if that’s His will,” he told The Jakarta Post in 2005.
Asmara also contributed to civil society movements in the country by cofounding the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam).
His last post was as executive director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (Demos), which he established with other human rights and democracy advocates such as the late Munir, the late Th. Sumartana and Arief Budiman.
“Bang [brother] As [as Asmara was colloquially called] was our teacher, friend and father. He was a loyal figure in the struggle to defend human rights. He is a role model of consistency and courage in struggling for human values,” Kontras chairman Haris Azhar said. “He fully dedicated his life to efforts to promote democracy, defend victims of human rights violations and empower civil society.” (lnd)
