HRW: Experts Must be Included in 1965`s Mass Graves Exhumation

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked the Indonesian government to delay the exhumation of mass graves related to the massacres of 1965-1966. According to the Human Rights advocacy institute based in the US, the exhumation must be done with accompany of forensic experts.

“The government should increase security in several mass grave sites where the locations are revealed to prevent any irresponsible party exhume the sites,” a HRW member said in a statement on Monday, May 23, 2016.

The HRW has sent a letter to the Indonesian government on May 16, urging the government to deploy skilled and experienced forensic experts to ensure that the exhumation can be done carefully and sistematically.

It should also be done in order to protect important evidences and allowing identification of the corpses. The identification of possible victims and the cause of the death are key components of a process to reveal the crimes.  

HRW Deputy Asia Director Phelim Kine said the mass grave of the 1965-1966 victims are crime scenes which the exhumation require specialized forensic expertise to ensure the preservation of evidence and accurate identification of the bodies.

On April 25, President Joko Widodo has instructed Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law, and Human Rights Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan to start documenting on the location of mass graves which are estimated to be more than 500,000 victims of the 1965-1966 “anti-communist” massacres.

On May 9, the Indonesian government announced it will form a team to investigate list of 122 alleged mass grave sites of 1965-1966 massacre victims compiled by victims’ advocacy groups.  

Luhut said he will supervise the exhumation of an initial sample of those alleged mass grave sites by the end of May. However, the government has yet clarified the composition of the exhumation team, or whether it will include forensic experts with experience in mass grave exhumations.

According to Kine, the exhumation without forensic experts will only destroy critical evidence and complicate the identification of the bodies.

The HRW and the United Nations (UN) should support investigation of the Indonesian government’s mass grave investigations. The international institute should help finance the preservation and analysis of evidence that could be vital to future domestic accountability process when overcoming serious crimes.

Forensic experts must focus on gathering criminal evidence and humanity identification of the corpses, so that the deceased can be returned to their families.

“The Indonesian government’s determination to exhume possible mass grave sites is an act of political courage toward accountability that defies a half-century of official lies and denial,” Kine said.

Hasty exhumations done without skilled and experienced experts may also destroy crucial evidence and could seriously obstruct efforts to bring justice for the victims of 1965-1966, Kine added.

LARISSA HUDA