Former Kopassus Chief Adopts Bizarre Poll Tactic

* February 23, 2009

Victims of the special forces unit have been hired as party candidates,
writes Tom Allard in Jakarta.

A SOEHARTO-era commander of Indonesia's notorious Kopassus special forces unit has a novel way of deflecting concerns about grave human rights abuses on his watch as he contests this year's national elections: he has hired some of the activists abducted and beaten by his troops as campaign workers and legislative candidates.

Prabowo Subianto, who is running a well-financed campaign for the presidency thanks to his billionaire brother, Hasyim Djojohadikusumo, was sacked from his military post in 1998 after a tribunal found troops under his command kidnapped pro-democracy students.

He is also accused of orchestrating multiple abuses during Indonesia's occupation of East Timor and playing a role in the looting of Chinese businesses and the mass rape of Indonesian-Chinese women in Jakarta as Indonesia descended into chaos in 1998, the year the dictator Soeharto was ousted from power.

Prabowo, who fled to the Middle East after the fall of Soeharto, denies any wrongdoing. Still, the US continues to deny him a visa - highly problematic if he becomes president. "In a certain administration we could say it was preventive detention, and if the regime changes, then we say it's kidnapping," Mr Prabowo said on Friday of the activities of Kopassus's Rose Team, responsible for the abductions.

Three of those kidnapped now worked for his party, the Great Indonesia Movement Party, or Gerindra. "Some say it's the Stockholm principle," he said in an often jocular address to correspondents in Jakarta. One of the former activists is his media officer while two are standing for seats in the new parliament.

Pius Lustrilanang is one of the legislative candidates, and was snatched off a Jakarta street by Kopassus forces in February 1998.

"I was forced to go into a car. My eyes were blindfolded," he told the Herald. "They interrogated me, tortured me and I was beaten. They held me for about two months."

Mr Lustrilanang said Mr Prabowo had apologised to him years ago but acknowledged the wealth behind the Prabowo campaign was a factor in joining the party after two attempts to stand for parliament for Megawati Soekarnoputri's PDI-P organisation.

"Look, I'm tired of siding with the wrong guys. I don't want to make that mistake again," Mr Lustrilanang said. "To me, Prabowo is a character who doesn't give up easily and is willing to learn. These elements are essentially important today as this country is still sunk in various problems."

Mr Prabowo, who previously attempted to launch a political career through Golkar, the party of Soeharto, is standing on a populist economic agenda with strong nationalist overtones.

Somewhat brazenly for a scion of Indonesia's elites who was once married to Soeharto's daughter and whose father was a finance minister in the Soeharto regime, he claims to head the "party of the dispossessed".

Gerindra claims a membership of 11.2 million and a stint as head of the Indonesian Farmers Association has given Mr Prabowo an extensive network of contacts. He has a powerful oratory style and his reputation as a charismatic strongman still carries appeal.

Polls show Gerindra has less than 5 per cent support, placing Mr Prabowo fourth or fifth among the presidential candidates.

Nonetheless, he is regarded as a dark horse in the poll. Gerindra has been blitzing the media with slickly produced TV ads. No party has more than 25 per cent support and candidates for the July poll will be selected in coalition-building after the April elections. Mr Prabowo's enormous financial clout ensures he will have plenty to bring to the table once the horse-trading begins.

with Karuni Rompies

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/former-kopassus-chief-adopts-bizarre-poll-tactic-20090222-8eql.html?page=-1

Pansus Orang Hilang DPR

Poster poster tentang orang hilang di Argentina


Nasib Orang-orang Hilang di Parlemen
[Mugiyanto]

Pada Oktober tahun lalu, dahaga masyarakat akan penyelesaian kasus pelanggaran hak asasi manusia sedikit mendapatkan harapan ketika Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat menghidupkan kembali Panitia Khusus DPR untuk kasus penculikan para aktivis tahun 1997-1998 (Pansus Orang Hilang). Pansus yang sebenarnya sudah terbentuk sejak Februari 2007 itu merencanakan untuk melanjutkan kerja-kerjanya yang berhenti dengan meminta keterangan ke sejumlah pihak.

Di antara pihak-pihak yang hendak diperiksa untuk dimintai keterangannya adalah pemerintah, korban, keluarga korban, Lembaga Swadaya Masyarakat pendamping dan pihak-pihak yang diduga terlibat. Pemeriksaan atas pihak terakhir inilah yang kemudian menimbulkan polemik dan kontroversi. Mereka yang dimaksud adalah Wiranto, Prabowo Subianto, Sutiyoso dan Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Beberapa kalangan menilai rencana pansus ini lebih merupakan sebuah langkah politik daripada sebuah upaya untuk menegakkan hak asasi manusia. Bahkan ada juga pihak yang mencurigai pansus sebagai manuver Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan (PDIP) untuk menjegal rival-rivalnya dalam pemilihan umum nanti dengan menyabet posisi ketua pansus. Namun bagi keluarga korban, perdebatan soal motivasi dan kepentingan politik di balik rencana kerja pansus bukanlah hal yang penting, selama pekerjaan dia bisa berujung pada ditemukannya kejelasan mengenai nasib dan keberadaan orang-orang yang dihilangkan.

Menanggapi polemik dan kontroversi tersebut, ketua pansus bergeming. Pansus tetap melakukan pemeriksaan yang dimulai dengan dengar pendapat dengan beberapa korban, keluarga korban dan LSM pendamping. Kepada beberapa orang yang diduga terlibat, surat pemanggilan pemeriksaan pun sudah dilayangkan November lalu.

Sampai akhir tahun 2008, ketika DPR memasuki masa reses (kunjungan ke daerah-daerah), tak ada lagi kabar berita tentang pansus itu. Dalam kesempatan pemeriksaan korban, keluarga korban dan pendamping, ketua pansus mengatakan, pansus akan menyelesaikan penanganan kasus orang hilang ini sebelum masa kerjanya selesai. Ini berarti, sebelum September 2009, Pansus diasumsikan telah memberikan rekomendasinya kepada presiden untuk membentuk Pengadilan HAM Ad Hoc.

Tanggungjawab Negara
Masa persidangan III DPR tahun 2009 sudah dimulai sejak 19 Januari dan secara keseluruhan, sampai dengan 30 September tahun ini, DPR hanya memiliki 126 hari kerja. Walaupun singkat, waktu tersebut dipastikan cukup karena pansus tidak perlu melakukan penyelidikan, hanya tinggal meminta keterangan beberapa pihak sebelum akhirnya merekomendasikan presiden untuk membentuk pengadilan HAM Ad Hoc. Namun demikian, bila janji ketua pansus tidak sekadar diucapkan untuk dilanggar, maka mustinya sekaranglah saatnya pansus mulai bekerja lagi.

Keterbatasan waktu adalah satu hal, tetapi etika moral, sosial dan politik serta tanggung jawab konstitusional negara untuk segera memberikan keadilan pada warganya adalah hal yang jauh lebih substansial. Seorang bangsawan dan negarawan Inggris, William Gladstone pernah mengatakan justice delayed is justice denied, dalam bahasa Indoneia bermakna; keadilan yang tak segera diberikan sama saja dengan pengingkaran atas keadilan itu sendiri. Di sanalah letak kewajiban negara, dimana DPR adalah salah satu unsur untuk segera menangani kasus penghilangan paksa (orang hilang) ini.

Agenda Pemilu dan Hak Asasi Manusia
Agenda nasional pemilu 2009 bukanlah satu-satunya agenda nasional yang karenanya agenda lain bisa dikesampingkan atau ditunda pemenuhannya. Sebagaimana hak-hak warga negara atas pangan, papan, pekerjaan, kesehatan, pendidikan, rasa aman dan sebagainya, hak warga negara atas perlindungan hak asasi manusia dan keadilan juga harus dipenuhi oleh pemerintah dan negara.

Lebih dari itu, pemenuhan hak-hak warga masyarakat tersebut justru akan memberi isi, makna dan bahkan akan menentukan kualitas dan hasil pemilu yang akan datang. Oleh karena itu, usulan agar Pansus Orang Hilang menyerahkan penanganan kasus tersebut pada DPR hasil Pemilu 2009 nanti adalah usulan tidak bertanggung jawab.

Agenda pemilu dan hak asasi manusia menjadi semakin kental relevansi dan keterkaitannya satu sama lain karena pemerintah dan DPR hasil pemilu 2009 masih harus menyelesaikan salah satu tanggung jawab besar masa transisi yaitu penanganan berbagai kasus-kasus pelanggaran hak asasi manusia masa lalu dan pemenuhan hak-hak para korban.

Keengganan dan kelambatan pemerintah sebelumnya dalam menangani pelanggaran hak asasi manusia masa lalu menjadikan tanggung jawab ini terus terbebankan kepada pemerintah selanjutnya. Namun tanggung jawab ini harus diambil, karena ia menjadi prasyarat keberhasilan masa transisi menuju demokrasi dan kemajuan ekonomi (Nelson Mandela, Transitional Justice; How Emerging Democracies Recon with Former Regimes, 1995).

Hak Asasi Manusia dan Pansus yang Hilang
Kalau kita mengamati secara serius masa hiruk-pikuk kampanye para calon legislatif (caleg) dan calon presiden/wakil presiden selama beberapa bulan terakhir, isu hak asasi manusia nyaris tidak pernah terdengar. Sangat sedikit, atau bahkan tidak ada sama sekali yang secara jelas berbicara tentang apa yang akan mereka lakukan terhadap berbagai kasus pelanggaran hak asasi manusia yang ada di Indonesia.

Dari perkembangan dan fenomena yang muncul akhir-akhir ini, kecenderungan yang muncul di kalangan para kandidat yang mencalonkan diri adalah membungkus rapat-rapat keborokan-keborokan mereka di bidang hak asasi manusia (political wrapping) dengan membangun pencitraan politik yang populis (popular political imaging) pada masyarakat. Sehingga kesan yang muncul adalah bahwa kita tidak memiliki masalah dengan hak asasi manusia atau hak asasi manusia tidaklah penting.

Ribuan korban konflik di Aceh dan Papua serta ribuan yang lain dari berbagai kasus yang terjadi sejak tahun 1965 hingga turunnya Orde Baru seperti menjadi angka-angka mati yang tak berarti. Padahal setiap Kamis sore, mereka masih selalu menagih janji keadilan pemerintah di depan istana presiden.

Iklan-iklan politik seperti ini tidak hanya membodohi dan membohongi rakyat, tetapi juga berbahaya bagi bangsa ke depan karena nilai yang dibangun berseberangan dengan arus besar bangsa-bangsa di dunia yang sedang berjuang untuk menghapuskan impunitas dan menegakkan hak asasi manusia.

Akan lebih bertanggung jawab dan visioner bila para calon presiden dan wakil presiden beserta calon legislatif yang sedang berkampanye juga mengintegrasikan hak asasi manusia sebagai bagian integral dari program-program yang mereka tawarkan bila mereka terpilih.

Bagi Pansus Orang Hilang DPR, kinilah saatnya untuk membuktikan bahwa pansus dibentuk dengan tujuan untuk membuka jalan penyelesaian kasus orang hilang sebagaimana direkomendasikan oleh Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia atau Komnas HAM pada November 2006. Pekerjaan pansus ini juga bisa dijadikan sebagai usaha untuk memperbaiki citra DPR yang sampai saat ini sedang berada di titik nadir yang rendah karena berbagai skandal korupsi. Bagi masyarakat, pansus juga bisa dijadikan ukuran kinerja para anggota DPR saat ini, apakah mereka masih layak untuk dipilih kembali?

Mugiyanto, ketua IKOHI dan Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD).

Tulisan di muat pertama di www.mediabersama.com dan www.vivanews.com

Profile of the Disappeared: Petrus Bimo Anugerah (BIMPET)

At the far right is Petrus Bima Anugerah, last seen in the end of March 1998. He is one of 23 victims of disappearances in 1997-1998 when Indonesia was in economic and political crisis. Data of IKOHI indicates that the Special Armed Forces (Kopassus) commanded by Major General Prabowo Subianto (who is now contesting for 2009 Presidential Election) is believed to be the perpetrator.

Bimpet, as he is best known by his co activists was a bright and brave student leader. The picture was taken when he was chairing one of the sessions of the Congress of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) in 2006 in kaliurang, Jogjakarta.

Bimpet was also a musician. He arranged popular songs portraying social injustices. He also formed a band group called Lontar, that is still existed until today.

We are calling for support from public to have the Parliament follow up the recommendation of the Komnas HAM, urging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to set up Ad Hoc Human Rights Court for the case of disappearances in 1997 - 1998.

Bimpet, your memory will always be with the people!

Torture Me... and I'LL Find You! - Convention on Disappearances

Torture Me… and I’ll Find You!
Carole Vann, Juan Gasparini - InfoSud


4 October 06 - After having worked for years on a Convention on Forced Disappearances, NGOs and Latin America are now working on obtaining recognition of the right to truth at the Human Rights Council.

Torture, imprisonment, executions, disappearances … The trauma left by Latin American dictatorships is still in everyone’s mind. Not convinced? Just look at the number of NGOs that have come from these countries to the Human Rights Council. For years, they have been working behind the scenes to make each delegation aware of the importance of a Convention on Forced Disappearances. Today, their governments are on their side. Together, they are fiercely defending the right to truth in hopes that one day there will be a Convention.

Friday, the first step towards this was taken when Louise Arbour, the High Commissioner, presented a report to the Human Rights Council in which this right is recognised as being “autonomous and inalienable”. The project, which was initiated by Argentina, Chili, Uruguay, Peru, Salvador, and Guatemala, is based on the experiences of the national commissions on truth and reconciliation in South Africa and in former Latin American dictatorships.

Reparation for the victims

Louise Arbour’s document was incidentally elaborated by the Columbian Federico Andreu Guzmán, from the International Commission of Jurists. The study reasserts the existence of the right to truth, which has matured in UN jurisprudence and was taken up again by both the Convention on Forced Disappearances and the Organisation of American States (OAS). The future treaty will mention the “duties and responsibilities” of States to conduct efficient investigations and to make sure that victims receive reparations.

“Not knowing what has happened to our missing is a terrible suffering in and of itself”, explains a Chilean who still doesn’t have any news from her brother who was abducted under Pinochet. This new principle will require signatory countries to do everything in their power to help victims and their families to find the truth. Hence, governments will have to answer individual or family requests and will have to help them find information on mistreatment, the conditions in which suffering took place, and provide them with the advancement and results of investigations undertaken. And in the case of death or disappearance, the family will have the right to demand the identity of the perpetrators.

Within this scope, the UN hopes that governments will ensure group measures in favor of the victims, and also hopes that the field of action of this new tool will be extended to include violations of international humanitarian law i.e. protection of the injured, prisoners as well as civil populations in times of armed conflict.

Fight and destroy impunity

The right to truth would thus constitute another means of fighting against and eradicating impunity. Moreover, it provides implicit recognition of NGOs for their role in the defence of victims. This step will also serve as a warning to States, which will not be able to evoke amnisties or similar measures to limit the right to request information on human rights violations.

“Truth is fundamental to the dignity inherent to human beings”, this is how Louise Arbour’s study is summarised. The High Commissioner urges States to be sure not to minimise the social aspect of this right and the right of a society “to know the truth about past events which refer to horrible crimes committed, as well as to the circumstances in which and the reasons for which they were committed, so as to prevent them from reoccurring in the future.”

Member States are to decide this week what legal framework they will provide for this new innovative right in the UN arsenal.

Source: http://www.humanrights-geneva.info/Torture-Me-and-I-ll-Find-You,625