The sluggish handling of past human rights offenses has raised questions about the government’s dedication to resolve them, as the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) declared 2019 a “dismal” year for the human rights program.
The commission mentioned its disappointments at the existing back-and-forth with the Attorney general of the United States’s Workplace (AGO) after the latter returned preliminary investigation files on the Paniai catastrophe in Papua, supposedly pointing out administrative mistakes.
The case, extensively referred to as the Bloody Paniai case, occurred when security forces opened fire at a crowd of demonstrators in the Karel Gobay Field in Madi district, Paniai regency in December2014 The event, which was stated a “gross human rights offense” by Komnas HAM in February this year, declared the lives of five students and left 21 other civilians injured.
The commission has composed twice to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo offering options for fixing previous human rights abuses, Komnas HAM commissioner Amiruddin Al Rahab just recently said, to little effect.
He argued that the Paniai incident presented an opportunity for the federal government to take that initial step toward dealing with previous cases.
” The time span of the cases [may be too] long. Our company believe that the recent occurrences could be fixed initially if there was the will to do so,” stated Amiruddin.
” Komnas HAM has fulfilled all the product requirements necessary for an investigation, so it depends on the chief law officer to use the human rights paradigm in fixing these cases.”
According to Komnas HAM’s own records, a minimum of 11 other cases of alleged gross human rights abuses have been left in abeyance since the commission sent its files to the AGO. Among them are the Trisakti and Semanggi shootings between 1998 and 1999.
A leading expert at the Workplace of the Presidential Staff (KSP), Donny Gahral Adian urged the AGO to solve the Paniai case as soon as possible, stating that the government could not manage to have its dedication to human rights thrown into doubt.
” If there is such a case like Paniai, the government advises the AGO to solve the case as rapidly as possible so that [the facts become] clear and the victims are managed their rights,” he said.
” To be clear, [the government’s] dedication to upholding human rights can not be doubted since the government desires rights to be respected, valued and maintained– in line with Pancasila.”
The commission has questioned the AGO’s persistence that it need to provide complete proof of its examination into cases of human rights abuses, although it is not lawfully allowed to do so.
Citing Law No. 26/200 on human rights courts, commissioner Munafrizal Manan has actually said that Komnas HAM is authorized only to conduct a penyelidikan(preliminary examination), which determines whether or not a case makes up an infraction.
The examination dossier of the Paniai case has actually been returned two times to Komnas HAM, on March 19 and Might 20, with the AGO arguing that the file had yet to please requirements.
AGO representative Hari Setiyono rejected Komnas HAM’s claim that it was reluctant to act on previous human rights abuses, saying that the workplace had actually likewise given clear directions for the commission to be able to fulfill administrative requirements.
” The letter from the Attorney General as a penyidik [investigator] to the Komnas HAM’s penyelidik[examiner] is really clear on that. There is no unwillingness on the federal government’s part, in this case the AGO, in processing this case,” Hari informed The Jakarta Post by means of text messages last week.
In its annual report, Komnas HAM said that 2019 was a “gloomy” year for human rights, noting that development on the concern was sluggish as politics took center stage in 2015.
The commission highlighted a number of essential occasions, including riots in Jakarta in May following demonstrations over the result of the governmental election, and another riot in September following mass demonstrations versus your home of Representatives’ plan to sign controversial bills into law.
” We all know that the situation is not favorable for human rights as there are numerous instances of hate speech, in addition to the Might’s riots,” stated Amiruddin. “Those declared individuals’s lives and until now, have actually not been effectively examined.”
Komnas HAM got 2,757 problems from the general public throughout Indonesia last year. The top four grievances were associated with rights to welfare (1,119 grievances), rights to justice (888 problems), rights to security (130 problems) and the right to life (93 complaints).
Most of the grievances were associated with land and labor disagreements in addition to illegal conduct in police and threats of violence, to name a few.
” This shows that the fundamental rights of humans are still a problem in this nation,” stated Munafrizal.
