Indonesia’s President Widodo expresses regret for human rights violations

AFP

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 09:13

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has acknowledged that “serious human rights violations” have taken place in the past. He referred, among other things, to the regime of Suharto, who came to power in the 1960s after a coup d’état. Before the events, Widodo expressed regret in a speech in the capital Jakarta.

Human rights organizations and historians estimate that under the Suharto regime, who seized power in 1965, at least 500,000 people were killed by violence. It involved ethnic Chinese and people accused of being communists. Another million others are estimated to have been imprisoned in such “purges.”

“It is with a clear conscience that I recognize today, as head of state, that serious human rights violations have taken place on several occasions,” Widodo said. He was responding to a report that examined human rights violations in recent decades.

Human rights organizations critical

Widodo cited a total of twelve events between 1965 and 2003, including the student protests against Soeharto in the late 1990s. Dozens of demonstrators disappeared or were killed or tortured. Widodo promised reparation to the victims, although he gave no further details. The demonstrations brought an end to Suharto’s decades-long regime in 1998.

Widodo also referred to abuses in the province of Papua, where separatists have been fighting for independence from Indonesia for decades. In 2003 dozens of civilians were killed in an army operation. Soldiers were charged with murder and assault, among other things.

According to Amnesty International in Indonesia, Widodo’s apology does not go far enough. The director of the local branch of the human rights organization has said that the abuses must be dealt with in court and legal consequences must follow.

Correspondent Mustafa Marghadi:

Widodo mentioned twelve incidents in which human rights violations have taken place. The most striking are the events at the end of the Suharto period. Huge student protests forced Suharto to his knees at the time. But that did not happen before countless students were arrested, tortured and disappeared.

In Indonesia people are very careful when it comes to this theme. People feel that it is very dangerous to speak out about this. There is also skepticism: former president Habibie previously acknowledged guilt, but that was immediately retracted by his successor.

President Widodo had set up an independent commission last year to investigate these human rights violations. But the conclusion of the report are all extrajudicial: no legal conclusions are drawn from it. That is because there is a lot of pressure from the army to prevent lawsuits. There are still too many people in power to be held accountable.

Widodo therefore has to compromise between keeping the army a friend and at the same time acknowledging the surviving relatives. Despite this admission of guilt, these dark periods will probably continue to fester in Indonesia.”

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