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Jokowi listed 11 violent events that occurred between 1965 and 2003, including violence against pro-democracy movements and the Chinese community, after studying the document prepared by a special commission. Activists believe that if the government is honest it should order a series of additional measures.
Jakarta ( / Agencies) – Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo today recognized as “serious violations of human rights” a series of events that have occurred in the country in recent decades since the 1960s, which he described as a “dark period” of contemporary Indonesian history.
According to historians, at least 500,000 people were killed in the period of violence that began in late 1965 with General Suharto’s seizure of power after a failed communist coup. At least a million people were jailed on suspicion of being communists.
After studying the reports of a special commission set up last year, “as the head of state of Indonesia, I recognize that many serious violations of human rights have been committed in our country,” Jokowi said, citing 11 other events that have occurred so far. 2003.
In the late 1990s the Indonesian government, still headed by Suharto, had bloodily suppressed student protests calling for an end to the former general’s thirty-year rule. Many young people were killed or kidnapped. In 1998 violence was also directed against the Chinese community, the largest minority in Indonesia, accused of accumulating wealth at the expense of Indonesian citizens. Serious human rights violations have also been recognized in the troubled province of Papua, which has repeatedly called for independence to unite with other Papuan regions.
Guaranteeing that this type of event will not be repeated, the president expressed his “condolences and empathy for the victims and their families”, whose rights will be restored “in a fair and wise manner, without denying the judicial decision”, with the hope that “This measure leads us on the path of national reconciliation among citizens, so that brotherhood prevails in Indonesia.”
Some activists questioned the sincerity of the president’s intentions, since the attorney general, in charge of investigating human rights violations, has frequently dismissed these types of cases in the exercise of his duties. Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “If President Jokowi is serious about past human rights violations, he should order the government to investigate the mass killings, document the mass graves, and find the families of victims, and should also set up a commission to decide what to do next.”
