Lhokseumawe: On Tuesday, Indonesia’s president pledged to “heal” the anguish caused by significant human rights breaches by rewarding people who suffered during the country’s dictatorship years.
“This (resolution) is required to heal the nation’s pain caused by past gross human rights violations that have left a heavy burden for the victims,” President Joko Widodo said Monday in Aceh province, northwestern Indonesia.
The region was the site of at least three known mass killings that resulted in dozens of deaths during a nearly three-decade-long insurgency that concluded in 2005.
“This wound must be healed immediately so that we can move forward,” Widodo said during a ceremony in Pidie, near a former military torture site.
Widodo stated in January that the administration profoundly regretted a dozen state-orchestrated large human rights atrocities done in the past.
In the 1960s, a ruthless anti-communist sweep killed half a million leftists, and in 1998, scores of student activists vanished during large street rallies that brought down the three-decade-long Suharto government.
Widodo also identified ten other infractions from the 1960s to the early 2000s.
“The government is now focusing on nonjudicial resolution, which focuses on rehabilitating victims’ rights without negating the judicial mechanism,” he explained.
The government would provide financial settlements, scholarships, and direct cash aid to victims and their children under the programme.
Human rights activists applauded the government’s move, but acknowledged the challenge remained enormous.
“This is a step forward, better than nothing, but of course, it’s not enough,” Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono told AFP.
One of the victims of a mass massacre in North Aceh on May 3, 1999, remembered the event that haunted him for the rest of his life.
When military forces opened fire on a throng gathered near a paper factory in the town of Lhokseumawe, Murtala was 28 years old.
The incident occurred in the aftermath of allegations that a soldier had gone missing during a period when rebels were fighting government forces for Aceh’s independence.
“I heard shots fired and hid under a truck to save myself, but someone grabbed me and repeatedly hit me in the head and chest with a gun.” “They stomped on my body as well,” Murtala told AFP.
When a man was shot dead in front of him, he went unconscious. He awoke three days later in a hospital to learn that his older brother had been slain in the riot.
According to the National Human Rights Commission, or Komnas HAM, 21 people were murdered in the fight, however activists allege 46 people were slain.
Murtala, who is also the leader of the victims’ association, stated that many of them have not been identified or recognised and may not receive compensation.
“This is unacceptable, and it will jeopardise justice.” “As victims, we are hoping for justice,” he stated.
Source: AFP