Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The seven recently elected commissioners of the Witness and Victims Protection Agency (LPSK) were confirmed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The agency is mandated to help resolve past human rights abuses and to combat extraordinary crimes such as corruption, drug abuse and terrorism.
Four of the seven commissioners elected by the House's Commission III overseeing law and human rights were incumbent commissioners: Abdul Haris Semendawai, Lies Sulistiani, Lili Pintauli Siregar and Teguh Soedarsono.
The three newcomers to the agency are Edwin Partogi Pasaribu, an activist with the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), and legal experts Askari Razak from Hasanuddin University in Makassar and Hasto Atmojo Suroyo of the National University in Jakarta.
The House Commission III took a vote on Monday night, in which Semendawai and Edwin got 51 votes. Lili came in second place with 48 votes, followed by Hasto with 47 votes, Askari with 45 votes, Lies with 33 votes and Teguh with 27 votes. Commission III members were allowed to vote for more than one candidate.
In the plenary session, the House ordered the agency to step up its efforts to support victims of past human rights abuses.
"The selected members must move fast to improve services for victims of human rights violations of the past, particularly of the 1965 anti-communist purge because they are getting older and older. We must wait no longer to restore their rights," Commission III lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari said.
Law No. 13/2006 on the protection of victims and witnesses mandates the LPSK to provide physical and psychological assistance to them.
Semendawai said that currently the LPSK provided such assistance to around 300 victims human rights violations that took place during the 1965 anti-communist purge and the May 1998 riots. Semendawai also said that years of deadlock on probes into past rights abuses had prevented the LPSK from helping survivors.
The commissioner for the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Nur Kholis, said that the LPSK could now continue its work unfettered, as the rights body and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) had agreed on some issues.
"Both Komnas HAM and the AGO have agreed to establish a joint investigation team to review and follow up on all cases of human rights abuses. It's clear that both institutions aim to resolve the problem," said Nur, who led an investigative team on the 1965 anti-communist purge.
"We hope that the new LPSK members can further help rehabilitate the rights of the survivors of the 1965 purge, as well as other past rights abuses. We really hope that they can get close with the survivors and stand for their rights because that is the main purpose the LPSK," he added.
Under Nur's leadership, Komnas HAM conducted a four-year investigation on a number of past rights abuses and concluded that the state-sponsored anti-communist purge in 1965 could be deemed as a gross violation of human rights, comprising murder, extermination, slavery, forced disappearances, limits on physical freedom, torture, rape, persecution and forced prostitution.
According to the investigation, officials from the Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order (Kopkamtib), which was first led by then Gen. Soeharto, were involved in the systematic and widespread killing of members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and countless other civilians suspected of having ties to the party.