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Rushing for a remedy without recognition
Those with access to the PPHAM report have said the team’s findings do not include any discussion of responsibility. Neither does it mention any suspected perpetrators of the atrocities.
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo (center) talks with families whose kin had suffered from human rights violations committed in past decades, in Gampong Bili Aron village in Pidie, Aceh, on June 27, 2023. (AFP/Adi Gondrong)
“I never expected this to happen in my lifetime,” said a gracious Suryomartono, an 80-year-old Indonesian exile from the Czech Republic, who lost his citizenship in 1965 amid the 1965-66 communist purge.
Standing next to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at a ceremony in a former torture center, Rumoh Geudong, in Pidie, Aceh, on Tuesday, Suryomartono represented a group of people often referred to as “victims of the 1965 violence”.
In the purge, hundreds of thousands of citizens were detained without trial, and up to a million were killed by groups organized and supported by the military. An inquiry by the National Commission on Human Rights in 2008 found that crimes against humanity had occurred and recommended that the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) launch a full investigation into the atrocities.
However, the AGO has never taken that recommendation into account, and a human rights tribunal to settle the tragedy has never been established.
Taking a closer look at the ceremony in Pidie, there is a fundamental gap between Jokowi’s human rights commitment and its realization, which is evident in several ways. First, it comes too late, as Jokowi is taking action to fulfill his 2014 campaign promise only during his last year in power. Second, his decision to cherry-pick 12 “cold cases” is too little to convince the domestic audience, let alone the international community, of the state’s respect for human rights.
Third, the presidential decree signed in August 2022 to form an ad hoc team, known as the PPHAM team, to review past crimes against humanity created a rushed approach that has sparked doubt and distrust in the government, especially among the victims and civil society groups. One of their reservations about the government’s initiative is the selection of the team members, who include a retired military officer with a link to past human rights abuses.
After a series of “focus group discussions” with victims, the team handed over its report to the President in January of this year. Its contents have never been made public.
