T

he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has called on President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo to issue a presidential decree to officially set up an ad hoc commission assigned to seek comprehensive resolutions to unresolved past cases of human rights violations.

A presidential decree is needed to set up the ad hoc commission, the establishment of which is included in the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), in order to speed up an ongoing process jointly being carried out by relevant state institutions that has been harshly criticized by human rights campaigners and victims of past rights abuses due to foreseeable unaccountability. The state institutions are Komnas HAM, the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the Attorney General'€™s Office, the National Police and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

According to the RPJMN, the ad hoc commission is to be under the direct supervision of Jokowi to facilitate efforts to thoroughly reveal cases of past rights abuses in order to finally find solutions to resolve them.

'€œThe ongoing process can move faster if the President makes a political move and issues a decree to set up the ad hoc commission,'€ Komnas HAM deputy chief, who also leads Komnas HAM'€™s team on the settlement of past human rights abuses, Roichatul Aswidah, told The Jakarta Post.

Roichatul suggested that the ad hoc commission could not only work faster but also more effectively as long as it involved various elements representing all stakeholders, particularly victims who suffered abuses in the past or their relatives.

'€œWe, as a nation, can thus move forward from officially acknowledging the dark past to taking measures to restoring the rights of the victims,'€ Roichatul added.

Komnas HAM and the state institutions have been conducting meetings to discuss resolutions to past rights abuses, the settlement of which has been in limbo for years despite campaign promises by former presidents and more recently by Jokowi.

In a move to show that he is different from his predecessors, Jokowi has repeatedly reiterated his commitment to settling past rights abuses, which have been declared gross human rights violations by Komnas HAM. During his term in office, Jokowi has assigned officials to be responsible for the issue, including Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly, Attorney General M. Prasetyo, National Police chief Comr. Gen. Badrodin Haiti, to work together with Komnas HAM to find the best solutions to the cases.

The unresolved cases consist of the 1989 massacre in Talangsari, Lampung, the forced disappearance of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998, the 1998 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 communist purges of 1965 and various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena in Papua in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

In addition to assigning those institutions to find solutions, the government has also initiated a bill on Truth and Reconciliation (KKR) to the House of Representatives, which is apparently an alternative way in case government officials fail to find the best solutions for all.

Minister Yasonna told lawmakers in a hearing last week that the government would prioritize its team, which is led by Komnas HAM, in searching for possible solutions to best settle cases of past abuses instead of discussing the KKR bill.

'€œWe might put the [KKR] bill on hold to allow the government'€™s team to work first,'€ Yasonna told the House'€™s Legislation Body (Baleg) when asked for a draft bill as well as an academic paper on the KKR because although the KKR bill was one of the priority bills in the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas), the government was yet to submit the draft to the House.