The House of Representatives has opened deliberations on adopting the United Nations convention against involuntary disappearances more than three years after the government signed a treaty pledging to do so.
In the first hearing, held on Wednesday, the House, the Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), all agreed that the international convention should be adopted into a national law.
Head of the TNI legal division Maj. Gen. S. Supriyatna said the TNI supported ratification of the convention.
The TNI, however, demanded that the convention not be applied retroactively.
"There needs to be a guarantee that alleged perpetrators in cases from the past will not be brought to court, even after victims of the crime are found," he said.
Under the convention, the government must first find the whereabouts or remains of the victims — a requirement that Supriyatna said could be used to prosecute forced disappearances from the past.
Komnas HAM said in a 2003 report that the abduction of pro-democracy activists in 1997 and 1998 constituted a gross violation of human rights
The Komnas HAM investigation concluded that former commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, currently chief patron of the Greater Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, and then TNI commander Gen. Wiranto, now chairman of the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party, were responsible for some of the human rights violations that occurred during the 1998 riots that preceded the fall of former president Soeharto's regime.
A report from the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) estimated that more than 50,000 people were recorded missing between 1965 and the early 2000s.
Elsam reported that 32,774 people went missing during the 1965 anti-communist massacres; 14 were kidnapped between 1982 and 1985; and another 23 disappeared during the Tanjung Priok riot in 1984.
Supriyatna of the TNI said ratification of the UN convention could mean the TNI and its members could be unfairly blamed for every missing persons case.
"People can go missing for any number of reasons, from natural disasters to social conflicts. That's why we need to carefully discuss each of the provisions in [the convention]," he said.
Some lawmakers supported the TNI's stance by proposing to adopt only parts of the convention.
Susaningtyas Kertopati from Hanura said that partial adoption of the convention could defend the interests of the TNI.
"People will easily blame abduction or other rights violations on the TNI. We tend to forget certain rogue elements in the society could have played roles in the forced disappearance cases," she said.
Deputy chairman of the House Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs Tubagus Hasanudin of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) insisted that the House had to adopt the convention in its entirety.
"We have signed the convention. There should be no turning back, we must show our commitment," he said.
Komnas HAM commissioner Roichatul Aswidah said that the retroactive principle from the convention could be a stumbling block to the passage of a bill.
"I want to emphasize that the convention will not be applied retroactively. It will only apply to cases that occur at least 30 days after the convention becomes law," Roichatul said.
To date, 21 countries have ratified the convention and 88 others have signed a commitment to do so. Indonesia signed the treaty on Sept. 27, 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment