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Subject: Fostering Impunity - President promotes human rights criminal
as deputy defense minister
INDONESIA: Fostering Impunity - President promotes human rights
criminal as deputy defense minister
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AHRC-STM-056-2010 April 08, 2010
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
INDONESIA: Fostering Impunity - President promotes human rights
criminal as deputy defense minister
On 6 January Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin was appointed by President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the position of deputy defence minister.
Sjarfie was the Jakarta military commander during the last years of
Surhato’s rule in 1997 and is widely believed to be responsible for
the still unexplained forced disappearances of 23 student activists.
One of the key events that led to the reformation of the current
Indonesian state, were protests against Suharto's New Order regime and the
abuses of the past. In 1997/98 students and other activists were abducted
and forcibly disappeared by the Army Special Forces Command (known as
Kopassus), under the command of Sjafrie, because of their political
activism in the struggle for change and democracy.
Sjafrie and the officers under his command are also implicated in the
human rights abuses during the Bloody May riots of 1998 in which rioters
attacked Chinese-Indonesian businesses and raped Chinese-Indonesian women
in Jakarta and in other cities, as well as for crimes committed in East
Timor.
For more than a decade local non-governmental organisations such as
Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KONTRAS), as well
as the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) have urged the
government to resolve these cases and have conducted campaigns to push for
justice for the victims and their families without success.
1) In 2006 KOMNAS HAM submitted a report to the Attorney General
detailing the incidents of illegal arrest and detention, torture and
enforced disappearances which took place during the 1997 /98 protests. To
date the attorney general has continued to abdicate his duty to
investigate these abuses.
2) In 2009 the House of Representatives recommended the establishment
of an ad hoc human rights court to investigate the forced disappearances
of the student activists. So far no court has been established.
Victims and rights groups, including KONTRAS filed a petition on Monday
5th April 2010 challenging the appointment of Sjafrie, who continues to
bear criminal responsibility for the alleged atrocities committed under
his command. Sjafrie’s appointment should be challenged and he
should be subject to a judicial investigation prior to any awarding of
political office.
The appointment of Sjafrie is just the latest example of the prevalence
of impunity in the current Indonesian government which contains
Surharto-era military figures, like Sjafrie, who block any attempt to
investigate the crimes of the past and continue to deny the victims of
state abuse justice and truth.
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues
in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984. Posted on
2010-04-08
The Commission for Dissapeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) Jl.
Borobudur No. 14 Menteng Jakarta Pusat 10320 Indonesia phone :
62-21-3926983 fax : 62-21-3926821 email : kontras_98@kontras.org website:
www.kontras.org mailinglist:
info_kontras@yahoogroups.co.uk
see also
ETAN: Indonesian General Not Fit
for Civilian Defense Post
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