Write to Forget

Human right cases in Indonesia are never complete. Time and again fact–finding teams are formed and evidences is found. But the court have never successed in convicting those responsible. At most it is those in the field who get punished, while top brass remains untouchable, unaffected. It was goodly. Perperators of many human right in heavy weight instead taken look like immune.

The preperators of the 1965 massacres, for example, have even still never been named, let alone brought to trial. This despite the fact that Sarwo Edhie Wibowo—President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s father-in-law—has claimed that more than three milion people were killed in the at the time. Sarwo Edhie made this claim to Permadi, a legislator with Indonesian Democrat Party of Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, PDI-P). Sarwo Edhie himself led the communist ”cleansing” operations in Java and Bali as ordered by Presiden Suharto. But it was not only communists who were killed in these operations, but also common people with little involvement in or understanding of politics whatever. This tragedy represents one of the greatest genocides witnessed in human history.

Lately demands circulate quite widely for Suharto to be held responsible for his wrongdoing, yet the 1965 massacre almost never gets mentioned in this context; instead it is the more commonplace charge of corruption that is so obsessively discussed. The genocide of 1965 remains a shadow in our national history our history. Never mind the fact that only recently President SBY requested Justice Agung Abdurraahman Saleh put aside even the corruption charges against Suharto.

What happens in the case of other humans rights violations? Most are equally disappointing. Every one of the military defendants on trial for the gross human rights abuses in Timor Lorosa’e, as well as all the military officers involved in the Tanjung Priok case have been freed, and this has had a dramatic impact as well on people’s faith in the the court system as well as the government.

Even the most basic internationally-acknowledged rights of victims are systematically ignored by the Indonesian state and legal apparatus. In fact, there are three fundamental rights which must maintain in the cases of victims of gross human rights violation. First, every victim is entitled to know the facts of the incident as thoroughly as possible. The government is thus responsible for investigation, protection of witnesses as well as victims, and for assuring access to all archival material related to the human-rights incident.

Second, the victim has a right to justice. This involves two further principles, viz people protection from reconciliation effort dan forgive effort who intent on preserve impunity also state duty for doing court administration.

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