JakartaPost-Jan 12, 2023
The government is preparing to “rehabilitate” the rights of victims and families of victims of a dozen serious past human rights violations after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Wednesday acknowledged and expressed regret over the country’s dark events. Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said the government was considering providing reparations in the social and health sectors, as well as scholarships and “physical rehabilitation”, following recommendations from a nonjudicial settlement team led by veteran diplomat and human rights activist Makarim Wibisono, tempo.co reported. Mahfud did not provide details, and questions remain over how the government would identify all victims or how massive the campaign would be. But he said that both judicial and nonjudicial settlements would continue to run in parallel. The move came after the nonjudicial settlement team submitted its 11-point recommendations last month, which included that the government should acknowledge and express regret over past atrocities, restore victims’ rights and build an oversight mechanism for recommendations implementation. On Wednesday, Jokowi followed the recommendations, admitting that 12 incidents amounting to gross human rights violations had taken place in the country’s past, spanning the period between 1965 and 2003 prior to his tenure as leader, and expressing his regret. He said the government was trying to “rehabilitate the victims’ rights […] without negating the judicial resolution”. He did not elaborate on how it would do that. They include the anticommunist purge from 1965 to 1966 that killed, according to some estimates by historians and activists, at least 500,000 people. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/01/12/govt-mulls-redress-for-past-atrocities.html.
