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Questions linger on Wiranto’s DKN plan

Activists and families of human rights violations have lambasted Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto for making conflicting statements regarding the government’s plan to establish the Council for National Harmony (DKN)

Margareth S. Aritonang, Marguerite Afra Sapiie, and Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, February 20, 2017

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Questions linger on Wiranto’s DKN plan

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ctivists and families of human rights violations have lambasted Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto for making conflicting statements regarding the government’s plan to establish the Council for National Harmony (DKN).

On Jan. 4, Wiranto said the council would have a similar function to that of the nation’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR), which has been declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.

“What we want is cases being settled through non-judicial means,” he said at the time. He added settling cases of conflicts in court was “not our culture.”

His statements revived suspicions among activists that he was trying to resolve all past abuse cases, including the Trisakti and Semanggi incidents in which he is implicated, through reconciliation handled by the DKN.

Despite demands for clarity, Wiranto has refused to provide details about his plan, which he claimed had been approved by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

On Friday, in a surprise statement, the minister claimed the DKN would not be tasked with resolving past human rights abuses. “The DKN is to provide solutions to horizontal conflicts, or even vertical conflicts that arise involving [people and] the government, via non-judicial means,” he said.

Families of human rights abuse victims, however, are not convinced Wiranto will back down from his previous statements that past human rights abuse cases were better settled through reconciliation or non-judicial means.

“He’s only paying lip service,” said Maria Sumarsih, who lost her son during the political upheaval that led to the fall of the New Order regime in 1998. “It seems that he is more interested in covering up his own dirt.”

Sumarsih, who regularly demonstrates in front of the State Palace to demand justice for her son, said she would continue pushing the government to bring those responsible for the atrocities in 1998 to court.

She said she could not understand why Jokowi would give up on his commitment to prosecute those responsible for past human rights abuse violations after only two years in office. “As a mother who lost her son in the tragedy, I say, firmly, that a reconciliation would be a disgrace.”

Feri Kusuma from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said Wiranto’s inconsistency only reflected his lack of political will to bring rights abusers to court.

“Wiranto’s statements keep changing. He’s wishy-washy and inconsistent. This means he’s hiding something,” Feri said as quoted by kompas.com on Saturday.

Ifdhal Kasim from the Office of the Presidential Staff, said the Palace was not well informed about Wiranto’s DKN plan.

Before survivors and activists during the recent 10th anniversary of Kamisan, a weekly peaceful rally demanding the government solve past rights abuses, Ifdhal admitted the Palace had not yet come up with “a final and optimal way to deal with past abuses.”

National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) member Roichatul Aswidah said it was not until Jan. 30 that Wiranto told the commission that the DKN “aims to also focus on finding non-judicial solutions to past abuses in addition to dealing with social conflicts.”

Komnas HAM has also announced it would uphold both judicial and non-judicial methods, with commissioner Nur Kholis insisting that non-judicial efforts would not undermine judicial mechanisms to end impunity.

“We are still working on ways to set up a [human rights] court,” he said.

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