Jokowi Cabinet may put security, law reforms in limbo

Yuliasri Perdani and Margareth S. Aritonang

The Jakarta Post

Publication Date : 27-10-2014

The appointment of figures with dark human rights records and political affiliations to security, defence and legal ministerial posts has left the countrys legal and security reforms hanging in the balance.

National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and rights campaigners have decried the decision of President Joko Jokowi Widodo to install 64-year-old former Army chief Gen. (ret) Ryamizard Ryacudu as defence minister, due to the latters alleged role in gross human rights violations that took place during the military operation in Aceh.

As then army chief of staff, he [Ryamizard] was responsible for all operations in Aceh. His appointment thus will protect the culture of impunity within the military, Komnas HAM Commissioner Otto Syamsuddin Ishak said on Sunday.

Komnas HAM had declared the military operation in Aceh, which lasted from 1989 until a peace deal was signed in 2005, a gross violation of human rights in August last year, based on an investigation that focused on five particular cases.

Among them are the 2001 Bumi Flora massacre in eastern Aceh; the finding of the remains of victims of the conflict in a mass grave in Bener Meriah regency in 2002; and the 2003 massacre in Jambo Keupok village in southern Aceh.

Ryamizard led the Army between 2002 and 2004 under the administration of then president Megawati Soekarnoputri, now the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggles (PDI-P) chairwoman.

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Jokowi Cabinet may put security, law reforms in limbo