Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – A coalition of 23 civil society organizations has condemned the move by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to declare the anti-communist purge in 1965 a gross human rights violation and rejected the establishment of a tribunal to deal with human rights violations during the period.

The groups are also opposed to the plan by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to deliver an official apology to victims and survivors of the purge, arguing that they deserved their fate for violating the national ideology, Pancasila.

"We are against the idea of setting up a human rights court and ask all citizens to stay alert to the rise of ideologies that are against Pancasila. No ideology other than Pancasila should be allowed to exist here. The President should not be forced to make a public apology to the victims and survivors of the 1965 purge because it would be a forced reconciliation. Reconciliation must take place naturally and righteously," Nusron Wahid, leader of the Ansor Youth Movement (GP Ansor), a youth wing of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

The declaration was made at the headquarters of the NU in Central Jakarta on Wednesday. Nusron said that a decree from the 1966 Emergency People's Consultative Assembly, No. XXV on the prohibition of Marxism-Leninism, was still in place and was aimed at protecting the Indonesian people, who were religious people, from atheism.

GP Ansor and 22 other groups including veterans of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Arif Rahman Hakim Militia arrived at the NU headquarters on Wednesday to hold a meeting with the leadership of the country's largest Islamic group to gain support for their move.

Responding to demands from the coalition, NU deputy chairman As'ad Said Ali encouraged all Indonesians to forget the 1965 purge and move on. He said that NU also lost many figures during the period leading up to the aborted coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party. As'ad said that NU, however, demanded nothing in compensation.

"Members of the PKI killed many NU ulema during the coup but we never demanded they be brought to justice. Therefore, it's better to forgive and forget what happened in the past, and move on," he told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.

He also said that the late Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, NU's respected leader and former president, would have made a similar suggestion in order to bring peace and reconciliation.

Gus Dur himself made a public apology to all victims and survivors of the 1965 events, and was reported to want to scrap the MPRS No. XXV Decree, which was the source of discrimination against the survivors.

Separately, NU deputy secretary-general Imanudin Rahmat said the issue would probably be discussed during the NU national meeting next month in Cirebon, West Java. "NU has yet to take an official stance regarding the matter. However, statements from these groups has inspired us to seriously question Komnas HAM's recommendations."