DATE=1/21/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA / TRUTH COMMISSION (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258277
BYLINE=JOE COCHRANE
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Indonesia is considering a South African-style
truth and reconciliation commission to address scores
of human-rights abuses that occurred during the rule
of former President Suharto. As Joe Cochrane reports
from Jakarta, the government is still moving forward
with investigations into violence in East Timor and
the separatist-minded province of Aceh.
TEXT: Minister of Human Rights Hasballah M. Saad says
it is impossible for Indonesia's judicial system to
address all the atrocities committed since the 1960s.
He says the government needs another solution to find
justice and national reconciliation for the Indonesian
people, as the country moves toward greater democracy.
Mr. Saad left for Washington on Friday to attend an
international human-rights forum. He says he will
seek opinions at that meeting on a possible truth
commission for Indonesia. Retired South African
Bishop Desmond Tutu, who chaired his country's Truth
and Reconciliation Commission, will also attend the
Washington forum.
Mr. Saad says Indonesia is open to advice from any
country, but would ultimately have to form a truth
commission to suit its own unique
political, social and ethnic situation.
The human rights minister says Indonesia under Mr.
Suharto was not like South Africa during apartheid,
where it was the white minority against the black
majority. He says Indonesia's conflicts pitted the
government against the population and, more recently,
ethnic and religious groups against each other.
Despite talk of a truth commission, an Indonesian
human rights commission is continuing a criminal
investigation into several military officers alleged
to have participated in violence in East
Timor last September. Pro-Indonesia militias, backed
by elements within the armed forces, launched a
killing, rape and arson campaign after the territory
overwhelmingly voted for independence in a United
Nations referendum.
In addition, 18 Indonesian soldiers and two civilians
will stand trial later this month in Aceh for the
alleged massacre of 51 civilians last year.
Mr. Suharto, a former army general who ruled for 32
years, was accused of using the armed forces to crack
down on political opponents and quash dissent, so he
could hold the vast Indonesian archipelago together by
force and intimidation. (Signed)
NEB/JC/FC/WTW
21-Jan-2000 04:57 AM EDT (21-Jan-2000 0957 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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