Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang – The Human Rights Center of Surabaya's Airlangga University revealed Wednesday that seven cases of gross human rights violations in East Java remain unsettled to date through either the judicial system or the human rights tribunal.
Rafael Lami Heru Haryoso of the center said in Malang that the seven included the fate former political detainees of the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI); the killing of labor protester Marsinah in Sidoarjo; the shooting of farmers in Blitar, Banyuwangi and Jember; the killing of Muslim preachers in Banyuwangi and land acquisition in Nipah, Madura.
Rafael said that efforts to conclusively settle the cases, however, were hindered mainly by the difficulties in proving them or in obtaining testimonies from those implicated in the cases. It was worsened by the fact that one of the defendants had already died and others were beyond the reach of the law, he said.
Moreover, the current government could not be described as totally independent or having no connection with the previous administrations, he said.
Rafael cited as an example the shooting of students on Semanggi cloverleaf in Jakarta, which could not be settled through the existing legal system. Even the House of Representatives issued its own resolution on it, but it remains unresolved.
The only avenue remaining to reach a decision would be through the truth and reconciliation commission, even though the initiative would have to come from the government itself.
"Through the commission all who are implicated (in the above-mentioned cases) are obliged to admit their misdoings before they are exonerated through reconciliation efforts," he said.
Rafael said that it was time now to set up a human rights tribunal in East Java to handle any new human rights violations.
"Who can guarantee there will be no more human rights violations in the future. After the dropping of the nuclear bomb, the world wars, there have still been other massacres," Rafael said.
Rafael admitted he did not know the reasons behind delays in the establishment of human rights tribunals for rights violation cases throughout Indonesia, or the truth and reconciliation commission.
In line with a 2001 presidential instruction a special human rights court should have been set up under the jurisdiction of each district court in Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Makassar, he said.
Meanwhile, Ummu Hilmi, a lecturer at the School of Law of Malang's Brawijaya University, asserted that difficulties in settling rights violation cases in East Java were caused by the public's limited knowledge about human rights.
"That includes the law enforcers and government apparatuses. Therefore, it is very difficult to apply it in the field," Ummu Hilmi said.
Ummu Hilmi said that the victims of human rights violations would just demand that their civil rights be restored as they realized it would be impossible to settle the cases through what may become arduous and time-consuming human rights trials.