Jakarta, CNN Indonesia — Bonar Tigor Naipospos, Vice Chair of the SETARA Institute’s Executive Board, believes the government is unwilling to address the truth behind past human rights violations. He made this statement ahead of the 50th anniversary of the G30S tragedy.
In fact, Bonar said, President Joko Widodo had initially raised hopes for a resolution to past human rights violations—including the G30S—during the 2014 presidential election campaign.
In the 2015–2019 National Medium-Term Development Plan, Jokowi outlined plans to investigate seven cases of past human rights violations: the events of 1965–1966; the mysterious shootings of 1982–1985; the 1989 Talangsari-Lampung case; the 1997–1998 abductions and forced disappearances of activists; the May 1998 riots; the 1998–1999 Trisakti, Semanggi I, and Semanggi II incidents; and the 2001–2003 Waisor Wamena incident.
Not only that, Bonar also believes that the government’s current approach to resolving past human rights violations is inappropriate.
“For them, the resolution is solely through non-judicial means. It’s just a matter of apologizing, a reconciliation between perpetrators and victims, and that’s it. They refuse to address the essence of truth-telling,” said Bonar at the SETARA Institute office in Jakarta on Monday (September 28).
Similarly, Hendardi, Chair of the SETARA Institute’s Executive Board, stated that reconciliation is the result of a truth-revealing process, whether through judicial or non-judicial mechanisms.
Hendardi regretted the government’s decision to pursue reconciliation rather than take the judicial route. In his view, the claim that it is difficult to find witnesses and evidence for past violations also needs to be substantiated first.
Therefore, he believes the attorney general and the president are mistaken in thinking that past human rights violations can be resolved simply through a public apology from the government and unilateral reconciliation.
“They’ve already opted for reconciliation before anything else has even been done. I don’t think this will help resolve the issue of past gross human rights violations,” said Hendardi.
Previously, Attorney General M. Prasetyo stated that reconciliation is indeed one of the best ways to resolve past human rights violation cases.
Prasetyo noted that the G30S incident occurred a long time ago—nearly 50 years—which presents the government with several obstacles and difficulties. Everything from evidence and witnesses to identifying suspects would be difficult to come by at this point.
Furthermore, Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s statement regarding various approaches being considered—including reconciliation—has been thoroughly deliberated by the Attorney General’s Office.