Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) will take human rights violations in the country to the international arena to counter "notoriously lax handling by the government".

"The government, as well as the House of Representatives, seem unable and unwilling to disclose and finalize human rights violation cases," Edwin Partogi, Kontras' head of research and development, said Thursday at his office. "Therefore, Kontras will bring the cases to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations," he added.

Edwin said Kontras would send facts on the incidents and the development of the cases to an annual council assembly in Geneva next Monday, in an attempt to get the council involved in investigating the cases, or even take them over.

He added that Kontras would also recommend the UN not elect Indonesia to sit on the Human Rights Council for the next period, as the country had failed to fulfill its commitment as a current member of the council to investigate human rights violations.

Kontras said it was focusing on four cases of gross human rights violations: the 1998 Trisakti University shooting of 4 students, the 1998 and 1999 Semanggi shootings which killed 17 people and the disappearance of pro-democracy activists in 1997 and 1998.

A number of police officers were court-martialled and convicted for the Trisakti shooting. However, no top brass from the Jakarta Police or Jakarta Military Command have accepted responsibility for the incidents, saying they never ordered their personnel to open fire on the students.

Earlier, House Commission III, which deals with legal and human rights affairs, asked the House leadership to recommend that the President issue a decree to set up ad hoc sessions of the Human Rights Court to try human rights violations. The House's Consultative Body, however, rejected the request from the commission on Tuesday, saying the cases had been tried, and those involved convicted.

In reaction to the body's decision, Kontras and victims' relatives described the House's Consultative Body as complicit in blocking further action on human rights abuses and accused legislators of behaving unwisely in relation to human rights violations.

"We are upset with the House. Law No.26/2000 on the Human Rights Court clearly stipulates that ad hoc sessions of the court are the only way to try human rights violations, but they rejected that recommendation," said Sumarsih, a mother of a victim of the first Semanggi tragedy.

Separately, a member of House Commission III, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, said the body's decision was disappointing and had blocked the way to justice.

"The president has no other choice except to set up ad hoc sessions of the Human Rights Court if the government wants to investigate human rights violations," he said.

"(This is) because the law (stipulates) that any incidents that happened before the enactment of the law can only be tried after the President commands the conduct of ad hoc sessions," he added.