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President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the attorney general to follow up on the
National Commission on Human Rights’ recent report on human rights violations
during the Indonesian government’s 1965-66 anti-communist purge.
The
Commission, abbreviated as Komnas HAM, announced the findings of its four-year
investigation on Monday, saying it had found evidence of serious human rights
violations and crimes against humanity. The purge is reckoned to have killed
more than half a million people.
“What
Komnas HAM has reported will be studied by the attorney general, who is
expected to report to me and other relevant parties. We want a good, just,
factual, smart and constructive settlement,” Yudhoyono told a press conference
at the Attorney General’s Office in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Yudhoyono
said he would also consult with the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), the
House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and
the Supreme Court, among other institutions.
He said that
he had studied the strategies that South Africa, Cambodia, Bosnia and other
sites of gross human rights abuses had used to deal with their violent
histories.
“We can
pick whichever, in order to settle the historical issue justly. We have to
think clearly, and be honest and objective about what happened in the past. We
cannot distort history and facts,” the president said.
Speaking
after the press conference, Attorney General Basrief Arief said he would
“probe” the Komnas HAM findings, and promised to share the results of his
investigation with the public.
“We call
this kind of probe a ‘pre-prosecution.’ The investigation will decide whether
or not there will be enough evidence [to bring the case to court],” Basrief
explained.
Komnas
HAM’s report cited incidents of murder, extermination, slavery, forced
eviction, deprivation of freedom, torture, rape and other abuses.
The purge
was catalyzed by an attempt to overthrow the country’s founding President
Sukarno. In the immediate aftermath of the attempted coup, Maj. Gen. Suharto
mobilized his force and effectively took control of the country. He would
eventually become president and serve for more than 30 years.
“These acts
were part of attacks launched against civilians according to the rulers’
policy,” Komnas HAM commissioner Nurkholis said.
Nurkholis
declined to provide names, but did not hesitate to point fingers at the Command
for the Restoration of Security and Public Order (Kopkamtib), the pervasive
security network set up by Suharto following the 1965 coup attempt.
“The
military officials who failed to prevent, stop or take action against human
rights violations are responsible for the incident,” he said.
The Komnas
HAM investigation team, which was established on June 1, 2008, and worked until
April 30, 2012, questioned 349 witnesses who either heard about incidents
during the violence or experienced it firsthand.
Komnas HAM
attributed the length of the investigation to several factors, including the
wide geographic area covered, budget constraints and the fact that many of the
witnesses had died since the time of the events.
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