Indonesia: Komnas HAM publishes reviews of major human rights cases

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has begun to publicly release the executive reviews of its probes into seven major unresolved cases of human rights abuses.

The Jakarta Post reports that the executive reviews will address the 1989 Talangsari massacre, the forced disappearances of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998, the Trisakti University shootings, the Semanggi I and Semanggi II student shootings in 1998 and 1999, the mysterious killings of alleged criminals in the 1980s, the anti-communist massacres of 1965 and various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena in Papua in 2001 and 2003 respectively.

The executive summaries, which cover the Commission's findings concerning the alleged human rights violations and its recommendations to the State to prosecute the cases, would soon be made available on the Komnas HAM website.

Komnas HAM will also distribute copies to human rights groups and networks.

"These documents need to be taken by the public as a collective effort to understand the importance of the process of settling gross human rights violations," Komnas HAM Commissioner Roichatul Aswidah told a press conference.

The summaries do not mention the identity of the alleged perpetrators because of arguments that such details should only be presented to law enforcers or courts.

For example, in the summary of its report on the probe into the Talangsari case, which was completed in July 2008, Komnas HAM found 130 civilians were murdered by the military and the police in the Lampung massacre.

The 2000 Law on Human Rights Trials allows Komnas HAM to follow up reports on alleged gross human rights abuse cases and to conduct preliminary investigations, but gives the authority to investigate and prosecute those cases to the Attorney General.

The law also stipulates that an ad hoc human rights court can be set up by a recommendation from the House of Representatives and a decree by the President, after obtaining the investigation results from Komnas HAM and the Attorney General.

Date: 15 November 2014

Source: Jakarta Post