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nternational human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to set up a human rights court to prosecute those allegedly responsible for the abduction of activists in 1997 and 1998.

The group said in a recent statement that the government was protracting the ongoing human rights violations and fueling a climate of impunity due to its failure to reveal the truth about what really happened to the missing activists.

“Amnesty International is disappointed by the Indonesian government’s statement that it would not set up a human rights court to try those responsible for the abduction and enforced disappearances of 13 political activists in 1997-1998,” the watchdog said in its statement.

“Enforced disappearance is a serious and cruel human rights violation; a violation of the rights of both the persons who disappeared and of those who love them. As long as the fate and whereabouts of the missing are not known to the family, enforced disappearance is a continuing violation that persists, often for many years, after the initial abduction,” Amnesty added.

Amnesty was responding to a statement by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto, who previously said that the government would not set up an ad hoc human rights tribunal, extinguishing hope among the families of the victims to learn the fate of their loved ones.

Hopes for the creation of an ad hoc human rights tribunal to resolve the alleged rights violations against the activists were revived recently when Djoko held a meeting with the House of Representatives’ leaders to discuss the House’s recommendations on the tribunal’s establishment.

The move drew criticism from several politicians who accused the government of trying to politicize human rights issues ahead of the 2014 presidential election.

Observers said that the move could become a stumbling block for two former generals seeking to run in the election: Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party and Gen. (ret.) Wiranto from the People’s Conscience (Hanura) Party.

According to a report published by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in 2003, Prabowo, former commander of the Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus), and Wiranto, who was then commander of the Indonesian Military (TNI), were responsible for gross human rights violations that occurred during the 1998 riots, which preceded the end of former president Soeharto’s regime.

Komnas HAM concluded that the riots had been the result of a specific policy as evidenced by the “similar pattern at almost all the places where rioting took place, which began with provocation, followed by attacks on civilians”.

Yudhoyono and Prabowo held a meeting last month during which the former reportedly gave his approval to the latter’s plan to run for president.

Djoko’s statement that the rights tribunal would not be established came only a few days after presidential advisor Albert Hasibuan told relatives of the 1998 victims that the President would finally be issuing a decree on the court’s
establishment.

The Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared (IKOHI) has called on the government to follow up on the House recommendations, which include an immediate search for the 13 disappeared activists; the provision of rehabilitation and compensation to the victims’ families; and the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. “The government must determine the status of the 13 missing activists if it doesn’t plan to establish the tribunal anytime soon,” IKOHI chairman Mugiyanto said.

“A revelation as to the whereabouts of the 13 activists that have been missing for 15 years will determine the future of the investigation into their cases,” he added.