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ictims of human rights abuses and rights advocacy groups are pushing the government to formally admit past human rights violations and apologize to families and survivors of the victims.

The pressure is being given as part of the International Day to End Impunity which falls on Nov. 23.

“We want the President, whoever he or she is [or was], to be willing to apologize to us, the victims of atrocities conducted by the state,” said Sri Sulistyawati in Jakarta on Monday.

The 72-year-old former journalist said she was forcefully arrested after the New Order administration suspected her of being a member of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). She was also imprisoned for 11 years without trial.

Sulistyawati and other victims of the 1965 purge, as well as victims of the 1984 Tanjung Priok riot, the 2003 Aceh incident and the 1998 May riot, have joined the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and Amnesty International for a series of campaigns urging the government to end impunity.

The victims and NGOs are scheduled to meet with the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) and the Law and Human Rights Ministry to discuss human rights issues.

In addition, they are also holding a public lecture in a private university in Jakarta to raise awareness of human rights violations.

“Our specific aim is to remind university students of the serious human rights violations in the country,” said Sri Suparyati of Kontras.

Various parties, including the state-funded Komnas HAM, have outlined in reports and studies the gross human rights violations involving the state in the past. However, the government has not taken concrete actions to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Komnas HAM has also officially submitted its findings and recommendations to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), but the law enforcer has taken no action, arguing that the rights commission’s reports give inadequate legal proof for them to investigate past abuses,

Therefore, the government’s stance contradicts article 35 of Law no. 26/2000 on human rights courts, which stipulates that victims of human rights violation should receive rehabilitation, restitution and
compensation.

“I just want the government to fulfill my rights,” said Riyati Darwin, who lost her son in the 1998 May riot.

Up until the present day, she said, the government has shown no intention to look for the responsible parties that murdered her son.

“We want the government to rehabilitate us very soon because we have become old and we want our descendents to be no longer stigmatized. Death is just days away,” Sulistyawati said.

Besides working with the two NGOs, Riyati and Sulistyawati will also work hand-in-hand with Bosnian rights activist Jasna Zecevic to convince the government to solve human rights issues in the country.

“We cannot build a country until we solve the problems of the past,” said Zecevic, who is still struggling to raise the awareness of the Bosnian government about rights abuse issues. (riz)