Detik.com
- September 1, 2009
Rachmadin
Ismail, Jakarta – There has been no significant change in the handling of cases
of missing person or human rights violations since President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono has been in office. Over the next period therefore, Yudhoyono is
being urged to show more courage.
“Our hope is
that the president will be more resolute, bolder and be faster in dealing with
human rights cases”, said Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras) coordinator Usman Hamid speaking at the Department of
Justice and Human Rights building on Jl. HR Rasuna Said in the Kuningan area of
South Jakarta on Tuesday September 1.
According to
Kontras’ records, there have been at least 1,225 people who have disappeared
since 1968 in connection with political incidents. In the most recent case of
the May 1998 riots meanwhile, there are still 13 people whose whereabouts
remain unknown.
The problems
described above are still occurring, said Usman, because Yudhoyono has not
received adequate support from the House of Representatives to deal with human
rights case, particularly in the trials of suspects.
“As an
example in the case of Munir, it has only been the main suspect and his
assistant [that have been convicted], while the principle actor has yet to be
tried”, he explained.
With a
sufficient degree of support from the political parties in the coming period,
said Usman, Yudhoyono should be able to be bolder. The initial step that could
be taken is to propose the formation of an ad hoc human rights court.
“We want there
to be an ad hoc human rights courts, so that the government has a court that is
sufficiently just in acting against human rights violators,” he asserted.
(mad/ndr)
[Translated
by James Balowski.]
