HRW report contradicts SBY’s human rights claims: Kontras

Noted human rights group the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has praised the 2012 World Report issued by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Kontras says the HRW report depicts the true face of the human rights situation in Indonesia.

“The international community should not have taken the government’s repeated one-sided claims about democracy and human rights in the country as the only source. The HRW report reveals a series of human rights abuses in 2011 that the government has downplayed,” Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

“The world must not be hypnotized by what President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono claims, particularly when it comes to human rights protection,” he added.

HRW’s World Report 2012, which was released on Monday, concluded that use of excessive force by Indonesian authorities and attacks on religious minorities had been a lot worse in 2011 than in the previous year.

HRW also criticized the government’s failure to end militaristic approaches in addressing conflicts in Papua while investigation into the perpetrators of attacks against religious and ethnic minorities had not been thoroughly carried out.

“Incidents of sectarian violence are no longer isolated cases in Indonesia, but are taking place at an alarming rate,” HRW deputy director for Asia Elaine Pearson said.

“The Indonesian government needs to reverse course and start prosecuting violence against religious minorities and replace the discriminatory regulations that only encourage such attacks.” (mtq)