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.
National scene: Govt mulls apology for anti-communist purge
Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
L
aw and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly said that the government continued to review a proposal to make a public apology to the families and victims of the 1965-1966 anti-communist purge.
'We're still reviewing the plan because it would involve a number of cases,' Yasonna told reporters.
Yasonna said that the apology would constitute one of two options that the government could take to try and bring about some closure to one of the darkest episodes in the country's modern history.
'There are be two options, judicial and non-judicial, and now we're leaning toward the non-judicial option,' Yasonna said.
He said that the ministry had yet to brief President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo on which option he should take.
The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) declared in its findings on Monday that the systematic persecution of alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) after the failed 1965 coup constituted a gross violation of human rights. The commission requested military officials who were involved in the purge to be brought to trial.
The Jokowi administration has decided to establish a non-judicial mechanism to resolve past human rights abuses in cases where there is an absence of solid on-the-ground evidence on which to settle the cases legally.
