UPDATE (Indonesia): House of Representative refused to deal with the cases of human rights violations in Trisakti and Semanggi

[NOTICE: To facilitate your intervention of the urgent appeals issued by the AHRC, we have developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of all the Indonesian authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the House of Representative of Indonesia (DPR) had informed that the cases of gross human rights violations including killings and disappearances of civilians in Trisakti and Semanggi during 1998 and 1999 will not be heard before the plenary session of the DPR to decide whether the cases should be tried by the ad hoc human rights tribunal. The decision was made at the consultative committee of the DPR on 13 March 2007, following the votes of six not in favour of sending the cases to the plenary session over the four votes in favour.  The victims and their families are disappointed about the decision which denies the victims the right to seek justice.

According to the information we have received, on 13 March 2007, at the consultative committee of the House of Representative of Indonesia (DPR), the members of the consultative committee decided that they will not send the cases of human rights violations that occurred in Trisakti and Semanggi during 1998 and 1999 to the plenary session where the decision as to whether the cases of human rights violations should be tried by the ad hoc human rights tribunal or not. The decision was made by the vote of six in favour of not sending the cases to the human rights court while four voted for.

The decision, however, was not surprising due to the fact that both the parliament and attorney general have been refusing to take any action for the investigation into the cases of killings and other gross human rights violations in Trisakti and Semanggi.

In order that the cases of human rights violations that occurred in Trisakti and Semanggi are tried at the ad hoc human rights tribunal, the cases need to be declared as gross human rights violations by the plenary session of the House of Representative.

The victims and their families and local human rights activists have been trying to send the cases of Trisakti and Semanggi to the ad hoc human rights tribunal in order to unearth the truth of the incident and bring the responsible perpetrators before the court.

It has been reported that no investigations have been conducted into the cases of killing, abduction and rapes that happened in Trisakti and Semanggi, and no legal remedies have been awarded to the victims’ families. On the contrary, the attempt of the victims’ family has been turned down because of the consultative committee’s decision on March 13.

The AHRC has reported on several occasions about the injustice in the actions of the state authorities especially the attorney general for not investigating the serious human rights violations during 1998 and 1999. The National Human Rights Commission of Indonesia (Komnas HAM) had conducted an independent investigation into the cases of the killings of Trisakti and Semanggi and submitted its findings to the attorney general in 2002. However the attorney general refused to take any action on the cases on the grounds that the parliament’s recommendation stated that the incident in Trisakti and Semanggi during the period of 1998 and 1999 did not constitute gross human rights violations.

The AHRC condemns that the decision made by the DPR as it is against the fact. The concerned incidents are obviously gross human rights violations that involve killings and disappearances of more than a thousand peoples in Trisakti and Semanggi. The government of Indonesia should never be in the position of being allowed to ignore such large scale human rights violations and act in accordance with their obligations to respect the rights of its citizen.

Moreover, we would like to ask the state authorities of Indonesia, especially to the Attorney General that if the government will not take responsibility for conducting investigations into the cases of gross human rights violations then who should be responsible for the role.

The AHRC strongly condemns the series of irresponsible attitudes taken by the state authorities including the attorney general of Indonesia in responding to the voices of the victims’ families and international human rights advocates requesting thorough investigations into the cases of human rights violations including extrajudicial killings.

The AHRC therefore demands that the government of Indonesia acts in accordance with the needs of victims and their family and immediately sends the cases of human rights violations to the ad hoc human rights tribunal for justice to the victims and their families. We also demand that they take all necessary actions to ensure the legal remedies that they are entitled to receive. Also the government of Indonesia should act in a manner so as to ensure that they will find out the facts about the incidents.

Furthermore, the AHRC urges the government of Indonesia to ratify the newly introduced International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

For over the last five years the AHRC has reported the injustice of the state authorities of Indonesia for not acting diligently in fulfilling their responsibility to conduct thorough investigation into the killings in Trisakti and Semannggi of 1998 and 1999. To review the details of the original incident, please refer to UA-23-2002 and UP-81-2005.

The government have promised several times that the discussion regarding the killings in Trisakti and Semanggi will be held at the parliament since February 2006, they have not taken any effective actions to inquire individual cases of killings up until now. For more information about the follow ups of the government responses to this case, please see UP-045-2006 and UP-102-2005 in addition to the Urgent Appeals mentioned above.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write a letter to the authorities listed below, demanding immediate intervention into the cases of killings and disappearances occurred in Trisakti and Semanggi during 1998 and 1999. Please also urge them ensure to provide adequate remedies to the victims and their families without further delay.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER