Alfian, Jakarta – New members of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) will continue to prioritize investigations of major human rights violation cases, said a Komnas HAM spokesperson.

The cases include abductions of rights activists, the Trisakti and Semanggi shootings, the Lapindo mudflow case, the Freeport case and a number of rights abuse cases including those in Talang Sari, Poso and Buru Island. "We will follow up and monitor the work on those cases done by the previous commission members," said Komnas HAM's Hesti Armiwulan.

She said the commission had formed a new team to continue work on the Talang Sari case. The previous team verified victims and witnesses and the newly seated commission said it would bring the case to the human rights ad hoc court.

Kabul Supriyadie, a commission member in charge of the Talang Sari case, said Komnas HAM would continue investigations, despite the Lampung legislative council announcing several years ago the case was closed.

"Statements about whether a human rights violation occurred or not can only come from the rights commission," Kabul said. "That authority lies only with the commission." Some 15 investigators will visit Talang Sari to learn more about the case.

New commission members were selected by the House of Representative on June 21 and started their duties on August 31.

Yoseph Adi Prasetyo, in charge of human rights education, said Komnas HAM had tried to simplify reporting processes for rights violation cases. Previously, the commission would evaluate whether a report was related to child abuse, violence against women or any other type of violation. But he said several types of violation may occur in one case.

"To work more effectively, once we handle a case, we will form teams which will work on observation and investigation, research, education, counseling and mediation," Yoseph said.

The new commission had already received 583 reports, at a rate of three to four per day. There was also a backlog of some 19,000 cases.

"We will sort which cases are still relevant to investigate," Yoseph said. "We also expect to handle the cases immediately and reduce the number drastically."