Nurfika Osman – Despite its patchy record of violations, the country's bid to be re-elected to a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council won activists' backing on Thursday.

Rafendi Djamin, executive director of the NGO Coalition for International Human Rights Advocacy (HRWG), said the country should not balk at pursuing a seat because as a member of the council, Indonesia would be able to demonstrate its commitment to further promote and protect human rights.

The election of 15 members to the council is scheduled to be held on May 20 during the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Rafendi said that while there were still human rights issues that needed to be resolved, particularly the May 1998 tragedy in which more than 1,000 people were killed during the chaos of the final days of President Suharto's rule, it was important to keep moving forward.

"We need to show that as a country, Indonesia is far from being a Burma, Pakistan or North Korea; that Indonesia has hopes to uphold human rights," he said.

Rafendi said Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Syria had already put themselves forward for the four seats open to the Asian region this year. The countries elected to the council will serve through 2014.

"Indonesia's position is strong because we are a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Historically speaking, countries that are members of these organizations have had an easier time getting selected," he said.

Indonesia was elected to the Human Rights Council in 2006 when it was convened as the successor to the UN Commission on Human Rights. It was also elected for the 2007-10 term.

Rafendi said that now was a good time for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to finally issue a decree to establish an ad hoc human rights tribunal to address the May 1998 tragedy, in line with the Law on Human Rights issued in 2000.

"The president should immediately issue the decree and he must be firm and fully committed to this," he said. "We have to continue to strengthen human rights mechanisms not only at the national level, but also at the provincial, district and municipal levels."

Nur Kholis, deputy chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM), sai it would meet with Yudhoyono today to discuss the issue. "The May 1998 tragedy was truly a gross violation of human rights and we have a lot of evidence regarding this case," he said.

Even though Komnas HAM recorded a steep rise in human rights violations in recent years, from 4,800 incidents in 2008 to 6,700 in 2010, Nur Kholis said the country was much more transparent now and the political rights of civilians were generally protected.