Lilian Budianto, Jakarta – Human rights activists and political experts have criticized retired military and police generals for protesting against attempts to question them in connection to past atrocities.
Usman Hamid, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, said Sunday the move only demonstrated their attempts to preserve impunity.
He said the retired generals had violated the principle of equality before the law by calling on the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to stop the investigations and urging the government to replace Komnas HAM members for abuse of power.
About 500 retired military and police generals gathered in Jakarta on Thursday. They said the rights commission had no authority to investigate the past atrocities, including the 1989 shootings in Talangsari, Lampung, because they occurred before the 1999 human rights law and 2000 human rights court law were enacted.
A provision in the 1945 Constitution states no new law can be applied retroactively unless the House of Representatives passes a law saying otherwise.
The former generals, including former Armed Forces chief Gen. (ret) Try Sutrisno and former Army Special Forces commander Gen. (ret) Wismoyo Arismunandar, have accused the commission of deliberately misinterpreting the law to force them to take responsibility for the Talangsari incident, in which more than 200 local residents were killed.
Try, Wismoyo and Gen. (ret) A.M. Hendropriyono, who was Lampung military commander at the time of the incident, have refused to answer summonses by the rights body.
"The generals have no justification in hiding behind the principle of retroactivity because a provision in the human rights court law says atrocities that occurred before the enactment of the law can be heard in an ad hoc court," Usman said.
The law says the ad hoc court can be set up by the president following recommendations from the rights commission and the Attorney General's Office.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told human rights activists, including Usman, early last month he backed the move by Komnas HAM. He ordered all government institutions to support any investigation or examination conducted by the rights body into alleged crimes against humanity.
Yudhoyono's call came after Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono encouraged retired generals to ignore the rights body's summonses.
J. Kristiadi, vice director for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the generals' protest was exaggerated. However, he said their move was a reaction to the rights commission's public disclosure of the planned investigations without personally notifying the senior officers beforehand.
He said the President should explain to the retired generals the investigations were not intended to force them to take responsibility. "They are summoned as witnesses and if they have done nothing wrong they should turn up and tell the public so," Kristiadi said.
Another political expert, Ikrar Nusabhakti, said the President's intervention could be interpreted as a move against the former generals, who will challenge Yudhoyono in the 2009 elections.