Insincere apologies from Indonesian government
By Max Lane
On August 15, President B.J. Habibie promised that the Indonesian parliament — the one "elected" under the rigged laws of the Suharto dictatorship — would now respect human rights. Indeed, he even apologised for past violations. The record so far, however, does not indicate that that pronouncement was sincere.
Government apologies, inquiries and investigations into violations of human rights mean nothing while Indonesians continue to suffer repression by the government and armed forces.
Three issues, in particular, reveal the insincerity of the Habibie regime on human rights: political prisoners, disappearances and anti-Chinese terror. These violations could have been ended immediately by Habibie and armed forces chief General Wiranto.
Political prisoners
As of August 17, more than 100 political prisoners remain in jail. They include Xanana Gusmao, president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, and leaders of the People's Democratic Party such as Budiman Sujatmiko, Dita Sari, Garda Sembiring and Petrus Haryanto.
Habibie boasts that he has started to release political prisoners. Why have not all been released? All were detained illegally under the Suharto dictatorship.
The Habibie-Wiranto government admits that these people are political prisoners, but the fact that they have not been released speaks volumes. For Habibie and Wiranto, these prisoners' rights are just pawns in the regime's main game at present: to improve its image in the eyes of the world so that its financial backers in the USA, Japan and Europe will find it easier to win public support for bailing out the Indonesian economy.
Even more disgusting is the fact that the "new" regime is playing games with the rights of people who have been in prison for 25 years or more. It refuses to release even aged and ill prisoners, many of whom need assistance from fellow prisoners to carry out basic activities.
Disappearances
The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, an independent civil liberties organisation in Jakarta, continues to campaign for at least 10 activists who were "disappeared" before May and have not yet been found. The regime refuses to admit any involvement — just at it did with Andi Arief and other disappeared activists.
In April, the regime denied any knowledge of military involvement in the kidnappings. It scoffed that perhaps the victims were "off having a picnic somewhere". Then, one by one, kidnap victims appeared, having been dumped at police stations or in the street. All testified that the military was involved in their disappearance.
Eventually, the military arrested some junior Kopassus (special operations) officers for the offences. Later, under increasing public pressure, it was forced to publicly investigate the role of General Prabowo, the head of Kopassus until April.
The military's admission does not reflect a change of attitude on human rights. If it did, it would release the remaining disappeared immediately — if they have not been killed.
Anti-Chinese terror
The government has no solution to the collapse in living standards of tens of millions of Indonesians caused by local capitalists' scramble to integrate themselves into the world market. It therefore desperately needs scapegoats.
Of late, officials often make the false claim that Indonesian Chinese control 70% of the economy. In fact, the IMF, World Bank, other international banks, transnational corporations, the Suharto and Habibie families, other non-Chinese elite families and, only then, some Chinese business families have control of the bulk of the economy.
Nevertheless, as the propaganda about Chinese economic dominance has increased under Habibie, the mass tendency to blame the Chinese community for the country's problems has also increased.
also revealing is the official response of the chief of police to calls for an investigation into evidence that Chinese women and girls were raped — and some killed — as part of a deliberate provocation organised by sections from the military during the riots on May 14-15. Rather than stepping up investigations, the chief threatened to sue any community organisation which made such claims without proof.
Even the government-appointed Human Rights Commission criticised the threat, saying that it was hindering the commission's investigations because witnesses felt threatened.
The apologies and investigations of the Habibie-Wiranto regime remain empty rhetoric until all political prisoners and all activists kidnapped by the military are released unconditionally, and there is an end to the scapegoating of Chinese and a genuine investigation into the atrocities committed against them in May.
There also remains the question of bringing Suharto to trial for the murder of 1 million Indonesians in 1965-6 and the mass murders since then in Aceh, West Papua and many places in Indonesia.