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Jokowi and his exiled compatriots

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by Aboeprijadi Santoso (The Jakarta Post, 28-04-2016)

On 22 April 2016 in The Hague, President Jokowi has been confronted with a drama at home and what is left of it abroad: the fate of Indonesian exiles since 1965.  In 2000 Gus Dur met with exiles, calling them “wandering heroes”, but he was not able to restore their civil rights. Yudhoyono, who enjoyed being among the world’s top Who’s-Who, never really showed much concern for them. Jokowi, a simple man who’s not shy about his simplicity, likes to listen to people’s concerns. Taking a break from his business agenda, he approached his compatriots in the streets, talked at a hotel and visited Indonesian students in Leiden. Unfortunately, there was no chance given to this first president with no link to the New Order regime to meet exiled compatriots at exactly the same time his government at home was sponsoring a historic symposium to publicly discuss, for the first time, the tragic impact of the 1965 genocide.  The Indonesian Embassy in The Hague apparently failed to see the significance of the opportunity for President Jokowi, who has promised to resolve the 1965 tragedy, to meet with exiles and compatriots concerned with the continuing impunity. But for Tante Cisca.

Jokowi's promises to solve past abuses in 2016

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(Source: The Jakarta Post, 09-01-2016): President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has expressed a commitment to resolve a number of past human rights violations by the end of this year [2016]. In a dinner with journalists on Friday night, the President said he had ordered the coordinating politics, legal and security affairs minister, the attorney general, the National Police chief and the head of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) to seek comprehensive resolutions to unresolved cases of human rights violations.

The President himself did not mention which human rights violations in particular would be addressed. In a move to show that he is different from his predecessors, Jokowi has repeatedly reiterated his commitment to settling past rights abuses. Nevertheless, he has been criticized for his poor performance on human rights, which is far from his election campaign promise to improve their protection in Indonesia.

Several human rights violations occurred in 2015: Christian-Muslim strife in Tolikara, the burning and demolition of Christian churches in Aceh Singkil, the fatal beating of an anti-mining activist in Lumajang, the creation of internal Shia and Ahmadiyah refugees because of intra-Muslim religious intolerance and the criminalization of freedom of speech and expression are among the cases.

Meanwhile, older unresolved rights cases include a 1989 massacre in Talangsari, Lampung, the forced disappearance of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998, the 1998 Trisakti University shootings, the Semanggi I and Semanggi II student shootings in 1998 and 1999, the mysterious killings of alleged criminals in the 1980s, the communist purges of 1965 and various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena in Papua in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

News from Jakarta

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Embassy tells RI students not to attend 1965 tribunal

Hans Nicholas Jong The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | November 05 2015 | 5:09 PM

The government has allegedly tried to ban Indonesian students from attending a “people’s tribunal” on the 1965 Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) purge in The Hague.The head of the tribunal’s organizing committee, human rights lawyer Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, said on Wednesday that the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague had warned the Indonesian Students Association (PPI) in Leiden, The Netherlands, not to attend the tribunal, to be held from Nov. 10 to 13.“I received a letter that says ‘our Indonesian students were called to the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague and told they will lose their scholarships if they join us. The embassy itself has decided it is a form of resurrecting communism’,” she told The Jakarta Post. Nursyahbani said the embassy had no business intimidating Indonesian students and had no right to revoke their scholarships.

The International Peoples Tribunal

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The  International PeoplesTribunal on the human rights violations of 1965/66 in Indonesia took place in The Hague, from 11-13 November 2015. During those four days there was a scrutiny of testimonies, submission of evidence and analysis from experts. A Council of Judges consisting of renowned international law experts examined all material on the table, observed by some two hundred victims, experts, lawyers, human rights activists, and others.