Ezra Sihite – The government is being urged to form a task force to investigate and solve past cases of human rights violation.
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Deputy Speaker Lukman Hakim Saifudin said that the president must move every institution to investigate all human rights violation cases.
"In order for it to be handled quickly, the president needs to form some kind of task force under his immediate coordination," Lukman, who is also the deputy chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), said in a news release on Friday.
The task force should make inventories of every investigation report on various human rights violation cases made by the National Commission on Human Rights, known as Komnas HAM, Lukman said, adding that it would also select which cases would be brought to court.
He said the ad hoc team should propose a rehabilitation formula, while the compensation needed would be executed by the president. "The formation of a task force will show that the government has a big heart to acknowledge and take responsibility for past incidents," he said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the Attorney General's Office to follow up on a National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) report on human rights violations during the government's 1965-66 anti-communist purge.
Komnas HAM announced the findings of its four-year investigation on Monday, saying it had found evidence of serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity. The purge is believed to have killed more than half a million people.
"What Komnas HAM has reported will be studied by the attorney general, who is expected to report to me and other relevant parties. We want a good, just, factual, smart and constructive settlement," Yudhoyono said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The president said he would also consult with MPR, the House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and the Supreme Court, among other institutions.
"We can pick whichever, in order to settle the historical issue justly. We have to think clearly and be honest and objective about what happened in the past. We cannot distort history and facts," Yudhoyono said.
Speaking after a news conference, Attorney General Basrief Arief said he would "probe" the Komnas HAM findings and promised to share the results of his investigation with the public.
"We call this kind of probe a 'pre-prosecution.' The investigation will decide whether or not there will be enough evidence [to bring the case to court]," the attorney general said.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Marzuki Alie said that if the government went with Komnas HAM's recommendation, the president would have to apologize on behalf of the government for the incident.
The Democratic Party lawmaker also said that people should stop looking into the past. "One thing is for certain, the case is about a half-century old. Why do we still think that far? Besides, we don't know where the people are now and many of them have also died," he said.