House asked to warn govt over ad hoc human rights court
Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 02/08/2012 7:36 PM
The House of Representative’s (DPR) legal commission deputy chief Azis Syamsuddin said the House intended to question the government regarding the progress of the plan to organize an ad hoc human rights court for rights violations nineteen years ago in Talang Sari, Lampung.
“We will find out the latest status of this particular matter, asking whether the government is up to the challenge this time or not,” Azis told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The statement was made following a recommendation made by the People’s Advocacy and Policy Research Institute (Elsam), an NGO concerned with human rights issues, regarding the unclear status of the plan.
Elsam’s executive director Indriaswati Saptaningrum, in a press statement, said the government should have followed up the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) investigation results that found gross human rights violations in Talang Sari.
She said the government should organize an ad hoc tribunal to seek out who should be held responsible over the bloody incident.
According to Komnas HAM’s 2008 investigation, no less than 130 people were found dead and 229 others were injured following the crackdown, organized by the Army, of an alleged hard line religious organization in 1989.
Wahyudi Djafar, another Elsam activist, acknowledged that the two terms of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s presidential tenure had contributed little to the effort to uphold human rights.
“The Megawati administration organized ad hoc human rights tribunals dedicated to the victims of the violence in Tanjung Priok and shootings in East Timor. While none has been organized under SBY’s leadership,” he told The Post.
The Tanjung Priok violence happened in 1984 and claimed the lives of dozens of people, including local charismatic cleric Amir Biki. Some army generals were suspected of having had roles in the violence.
The East Timor shootings referred to the Santa Cruz incident where dozens of people were shot dead by Indonesian soldiers. A number of senior army officers were also suspected to have orchestrated the shootings.
