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Govt to start mapping political exiles for reparations
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he Law and Human Rights Ministry will soon start mapping out the number of political exiles abroad whose citizenship is eligible for restoration, following up on a recent decree to settle past human rights abuses.
The ministry’s directorate general for human rights is set to carry out Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 2/2023, which President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed last week as a follow-up on 11 recommendations submitted in January by a nonjudicial settlement team led by veteran diplomat and human rights activist Makarim Wibisono.
The instruction focuses on the restoration of constitutional and civil rights for political exiles who were forced to leave or remain outside the country due to their links, or alleged links, to the putsch of Sept. 30, 1965, which was used as the pretext for a bloody purge of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members and alleged members.
In the instruction, the Attorney General’s Office, the National Police, the Indonesian Military and 16 Cabinet ministries, including the Law and Human Rights Ministry, were assigned to implement the team’s recommendations, each in accordance with their respective roles and responsibilities.
The law ministry, for instance, was assigned by the President to provide citizenship documents for the victims of past atrocities or their living heirs who live abroad and offer them repatriation assistance should they wish it.
Acting human rights director general, Dhahana Putra told reporters on Tuesday that the ministry would begin its work by recording the number of political exiles living abroad and verifying their data.
Dhahana said he would discuss with the heads of the immigration and the legal administration directorates general and before starting work together with the Foreign Ministry and Home Ministry to restore the victims' rights.
“We will try our best to verify the citizenship data of [the victims] abroad. Secondly, we will provide them with additional services. For example, if they want to be Indonesian citizens again, we will assist in the process," he said.
Currently, there is no official figure on how many Indonesian political exiles there are overseas. Many were former students granted state scholarships to study in countries within or associated with the former Soviet Union, and had their citizenship revoked by Soeharto’s New Order regime for their supposed links to the 1965 coup attempt.
Previously, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said that the government would aim to restore the citizenship of Indonesians who were rendered stateless during this dark chapter in the nation’s history, which saw thousands of people killed for their affiliation with, or suspected links to, the now-defunct PKI.
A string of government efforts to resolve past rights abuse through nonjudicial means are being pursued despite reservations from rights activists and advocacy groups and the victims themselves. Jokowi announced the plan in his annual State of the Nation address in August 2022, which was followed by the establishment of the team via Presidential Decree (Keppres) No. 17/2022.
In January, President Jokowi followed through on the team’s recommendations by acknowledging and expressing regret over 12 instances of gross human rights violations that occurred between 1965 and 2003. The cases include the communist purge, which may have led to the deaths, according to some estimates by historians and activists, of as many as 500,000 people.
The nonjudicial settlement team also recommended that the President set up an oversight mechanism for the implementation of the other recommendations.
Jokowi has so far established an oversight team via Presidential Decree No. 4/2023, signed on March 15.
This team comprises a steering committee and a technical implementation team. Senior minister Mahfud MD was appointed as the head of the steering team, while the coordinating ministry secretary, Lt. Gen. Teguh Pudjo Rumekso, will lead the implementation team.
Makarim, who previously headed the team that drafted the recommendations, now sits as deputy head of the implementation team, while Dhahana sits on the 46-strong team that will work on the program until the end of this year.
