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Govt highlights fairness in pursuing justice for past violence
Rights champion: National Commission for Human Rights chairman Hafid Abbas (right) gives the 2014 HAM Award to a representative of to the late Maria Ulfah Soebadio Sastrosatomo, the countryâs first labor minister, on Thursday
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span class="inline inline-center">Rights champion: National Commission for Human Rights chairman Hafid Abbas (right) gives the 2014 HAM Award to a representative of to the late Maria Ulfah Soebadio Sastrosatomo, the country's first labor minister, on Thursday. Along with Maria, human rights defender Munir Said Thalib, who was murdered in 2004, also received the award this year. JP/Dhoni Setiawan
The government reiterated its commitment to fairly settling cases of past gross human rights violations, easing mounting doubts over its seriousness in upholding human rights in the country.
In his speech during a ceremony to commemorate international human rights day at the Yogyakarta Presidential Palace last Tuesday, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo assured that his administration was committed to resolving cases of past rights abuses through the establishment of ad hoc human rights tribunals and a comprehensive reconciliation process.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla restated the government's stance in upholding fairness regarding the matter, assuring the audience gathered at a ceremony on Wednesday that the Jokowi-Kalla administration was taking all measures to resolve all cases of past human rights violations.
'['¦] I know that there are cases that we must settle. The government continues to take efforts to deal with them, but it's not easy work because we must search for data, including evidence. Finding evidence is not always easy,' Kalla said.
Kalla further illustrated the difficulty and the length of time required to resolve such cases by mentioning the unsolved murder of former US president John F. Kennedy, the truth of which, Kalla said, was yet to be exposed despite countless documentaries and publications presented to the public.
He also presented to his audience, among whom were individuals and relatives of those who had survived several cases of past gross rights violations, the story of former South African president Nelson Mandela's long journey to justice.
'But that is not an excuse. We are still searching out what happened. It's just not that easy to find out. I just want to tell you this,' Kalla said.
'Today you see that the government hasn't apologized. But [we] keep on trying, even though hurdles are everywhere,' he stated.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has recently started to publicize its executive reviews of probes into seven major unresolved human rights abuse cases in an attempt to push for their settlement.
Those cases consist of the 1989 Talangsari massacre; the forced disappearances of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998; the Trisakti University shootings; the Semanggi I and Semanggi II student shootings in 1998 and 1999; the mysterious killings of alleged criminals in the 1980s; the anti-communist massacres of 1965 and the various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena in Pa-pua in 2001 and 2003 respectively.
Bedjo Untung, a survivor of the 1965 purge who attended the ceremony on Wednesday, expressed a feeling of relief after listening to Kalla's speech as he was reassured of a brighter future for what he had been fighting for years.
'I am happy to hear that because it assures me that the government is actually serious about ending our years of struggle for justice. But I expect that Pak JK [Jusuf Kalla] will make an official apology by the state, or something like that, because it would ease our pain,' Bedjo said.
'An official apology from the government is crucial because it will be a door through which all solutions may emerge,' he added.
In a separate event, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno gave his assurances that the government was still able to follow up reports on human rights violations properly while preparing the establishment of the much-awaited human rights court.
'We will handle all human rights issues properly, [that is] Mr. President's promise. Just don't keep pushing the government [to establish the court immediately],' he said.
'We are preparing, including law enforcers and other related things.'
