T

he Attorney General'€™s Office (AGO) has refused to acknowledge a people'€™s tribunal, a non-judicial forum on the 1965 Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) purge, slated to be held in The Hague from Tuesday to Friday this week.

Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo said on Tuesday that the tribunal, initiated by human rights activists, would not affect the government'€™s own efforts to deal with the issue in its own way.

'€œWe solve our own issues. There is no need for other parties to be involved in this,'€ he said as reported by kompas.com.

Prasetyo said that the government was still trying to figure out a way to resolve past human rights violations '€œthough reconciliation, but there are so many things to discuss and prepare.'€

Earlier this year, the government announced that it would attempt to establish a joint team to settle seven past human right violations, including the 1965 communist massacre.

It said the team would consist of representatives from the AGO, Law and Human Rights Ministry, National Police, National Intelligence Agency (BIN), Indonesian Military (TNI) and National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

At the time, Prasetyo said that the team would most likely try to resolve the rights issues via non-judicial mechanisms because of complex technical problems.

Komnas HAM claims that progress on the establishment of the team has slowed since President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo reshuffled his Cabinet in August and placed retired Army general and Jokowi'€™s close aide, Luhut Panjaitan, as coordinating politics, legal and security affairs minister.

Komnas HAM commissioner Muhammad Nurkhoiron told The Jakarta Post that Luhut was not as accommodating of the idea of revisiting the past as his predecessor, Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, a retired high-ranking Navy officer.

'€œPreviously, we received some positive signals as Pak Tedjo and Law and Human Rights Minister [Yasonna Hamonangan Laoly] had promised that Komnas HAM would be able to meet directly with the President to discuss our plans. However, [Tedjo] was replaced before we could meet [with Jokowi],'€ he said.

'€œSince then, we have not received word of whether such a meeting will happen. The current coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister has only given us empty promises. In fact, we recently met [with Luhut] who claimed that our proposal was not yet ready.'€

Nurkhoiron pointed out that many of those who claim the state shouldn'€™t take responsibility and apologize for the alleged atrocities of 1965, such as Luhut and BIN chief Sutiyoso, were former members of or closely connected to the Indonesian Army.

'€œMaybe they are scared [of the reconciliation team]. They have been one of the most vocal opponent'€™s of a state apology. Convincing the Indonesian Army and its former generals that the state must face its past is one our biggest challenges,'€ he said, adding that Jokowi'€™s stance on human rights had been very different before the Cabinet reshuffle.

'€œIf President Jokowi continues to surround himself with these people I'€™m afraid that it will take a long time for us to realize our plans,'€ he added.

In August, anti-PKI protests were held in a number of cities following rumors that Jokowi planned to deliver an official apology to families and victims of the 1965 purge during his speech to commemorate the country'€™s 70th anniversary.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung has previously said that such an apology had never been discussed at any Cabinet meetings as the government was focused on overcoming the effects of the global economic slowdown.
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