Indonesian history may be rewritten but no rehabilitation yet for anticommunist victims

Jakarta (The Jakarta Post/ANN) - In spite of new evidence that the prosecution of alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) after the failed 1965 coup was a gross human rights violation, survivors from the tragedy do not hope that justice will be served anytime soon.

Historian Asvi Warman Adam said that the 1965 anticommunist purge, just like every other gross violation of human rights in the country, remains an unsolved mystery because of governmental inaction.

"Looking back at the long list of human rights violations in Indonesia, the buck stops at the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM] and none of the perpetrators were ever brought to court. The government failed to punish them," Adam told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Adam, a historian with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said that survivors from the tragedy could take solace from the fact the Komnas HAM had declared the purge a gross violation of human rights.

In late July, Komnas HAM declared in its findings that the systematic prosecution of alleged members of the PKI after the failed 1965 coup was a gross human rights violation. The commission urged that military officials involved in the purge be brought to trial.

"It is very important for the history of our country that in 2012 Komnas HAM officially declared the 1965 purge to be gross violation of human rights. It was an official statement by a government institution, based on the commission's thorough investigation in all provinces in Indonesia," Adam said.

Adam said that the ball is now in the court of the Attorney General's Office (AGO), a government institution with a long history of failure to prosecute cases of human rights violations.

Chairman of Komnas HAM Ifdhal Kasim said that the biggest obstacle for the institution to finalise its findings was the absence of concrete evidence such as weapons and bullets that were used to execute the victims.

"The events happened long time ago and it is difficult to obtain such evidence. Komnas HAM only collected information and testimonials from victims, former members of the security agencies and forensic evidence from the crime scenes," Kasim said.

Kasim said that Komnas HAM could do little but call on the AGO to follow through its findings.

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Indonesian history may be rewritten but no rehabilitation yet for anticommunist victims