President Joko Widodo on Wednesday expressed deep regret over the grave human rights abuses in Indonesia’s turbulent post-colonial past, dating back to the mass murder of suspected communists and sympathizers in the mid-1960s. expressed.
According to some historians and activists, at least half a million people died in violence that began in late 1965 when the military launched a purge of communists who said they were planning a coup.
During the crackdown, more than a million people were imprisoned on suspicion of being communists, and in 1967 General Suharto ousted Indonesia’s independence leader, President Sukarno, and overthrew the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. Reigned for 30 years.
Widodo, commonly known as Jokowi, recently received a debrief from the team he commissioned last year to explore Indonesia’s bloody history, promising to take up the issue when he first came to power in 2014.
He lists 11 cases of human rights violations spanning the period 1965-2003, including the murder and kidnapping of students blamed on security forces during protests against the Suharto dictatorship in the late 1990s. rice field.
“As a head of state, I acknowledge that there have been serious human rights violations in many incidents,” Widodo said.
“And we deeply regret that these violations have occurred.”
The 1998 riots also killed about 1,200 people and often targeted the Chinese community.
Mr Jokowi said the government would seek to restore victims’ rights “fairly and judiciously without denying judicial solutions”, but did not specify how.
He also cited human rights violations in rebel areas in Papua and anti-government activities in Aceh.
Victims, their relatives and rights groups have questioned whether the Jokowi government is serious about being held accountable for past atrocities.
Rights activists point out that the Office of the Attorney General, which is charged with investigating rights violations, has often dismissed such cases.
“It is important for me that the president brings the alleged perpetrators to justice in court and ensures that no serious rights violations occur in the future,” said former civil servant Maria Catarina Smarsi. . injured student.
Amnesty International’s Ousman Hamid said victims should receive reparations and past serious crimes should be resolved “through judicial means”.
Winarso, coordinator of a group that cares for survivors of the 1965 bloodshed, said the president’s approval was insufficient, but could create room for debate about the massacre.
“If President Jokowi is serious about past human rights abuses, he should first investigate these mass murders, document mass graves, find their families, match graves with their families, It should also mandate the government’s efforts to establish a commission to decide what to do next,” said Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The Jokowi government has faced criticism for its commitment to human rights after Congress ratified a controversial criminal law last month.