National Commission on Human Rights Examine Soeharto's Violations
Tuesday, 11 March, 2008 | 14:38 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The death of former President Soeharto has not put a halt to the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to continue the investigation on human rights violations during the government of the new-order. The investigation is intended to prove the human rights violations during that period.

“This is the commission's mandate, as mentioned in regulation No. 26 year 2000,” said the commission's deputy, M. Ridha Saleh, when contacted last night In that regulation, he said, the commission is ordered to study the crimes against humanity during the new-order government.

The commission formed four teams with different duties. Two of them are an ad hoc team that will research the mysterious shooting ( Petrus) and the massacre after the of 30 September 1965 movement. The Petrus team will be chaired by Yosep Adi Prasetyo, and the team for the 1965 massacre will be led by Nurkholis.

Two other teams are called special teams. They will follow through cases that are possibly related to human-rights violations, regarding the policy of Military Operation Areas (DOM) in Aceh and Papua. The Aceh DOM Team will be headed by commission member, Ahmad Baso. The Aceh team will be under the coordination of M. Ridha Saleh.

“In the past, the four teams were called Team for Soeharto's Crimes,” said Ridha. But now the name is changed to ad hoc team and special team. “ Soeharto has passed away while there are still many people involved with human-rights violations,” he said explaining the change of the teams’ name.

The commission had different schedules for the teams. The Ad hoc Team will work for two months, while the special team for three months. In that time, they will work on pro-judicial investigation. The investigation research will be decided in the plenary meeting of the Human Rights Commission before it is submitted to the Attorney General's Office

Indriyanto Senoadji, Attorney of Soeharto's family, said that the Commission’s move is absurd and premature. “The investigation cannot be automatic,” he said. “Determining which cases are to be investigated needs to wait for a political decision”.

According to Indriyanto, the upgrading of a case study into this kind of investigation, will create different interpretations. He saw this as a consequence for not having a regulation yet for this issue.

Rafendy Jamin, Coordinator for the Human Rights Working Group, welcomed this move of the Commission. “Although Soeharto is gone, the next structure should be responsible as well.”, he said.

Amiruddin Al-Rahab from the institute of community study and advocacy, said that the intention of the Human Rights C omission will not be accomplished without political support from legislators and political parties. “There has not been a good intention politically, to investigate human-rights crimes”, he said. “These cases will only be for political interest”.

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