Tribunal`s Verdict on 1965 `Genocide` to be Submitted to the UN  

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The verdict of the International People’s Tribunal (IPT) on 1965 Crimes Against Humanity in Indonesia will be submitted to the United Nations (UN). The general coordinator of the IPT Nursyahbani Katjasungkana is hopeful that the UN can push the Indonesian government to address the 50-year-old impunity issue. “The purge committed after 1965 event can be categorized as crime based on the 1948 genocide convention,” he said at the office of Indonesia Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), Jakarta, Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

Nursyahbani also planned to submit the verdict to a number of government departments and the House of Representatives (DPR). He hoped that the verdict could change the Attorney General’s Office’s perspective on 1965 events since the investigations conducted by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) have always hit a snag in the office.

The final report of the panel of judges of the IPT 1965 was published yesterday after a hearing in the Hague, the Netherlands, in November 2015. The report said that Indonesia is guilty of and responsible for crimes against humanity following the murder of six generals and a lieutenant in Jakarta on September 30, 1965. The ‘inhumane’ acts were particularly perpetrated through military command.

The panel of judges of the IPT, presided by Zakeria Yacoob from South Africa, also considers a series of events after 1965 as genocide. In November, genocide was not included in the indictment requested by the IPT general prosecutors lead by lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis.

In one of its recommendations, the panel of judges of the IPT has called upon the Indonesian government to probe and prosecute all of the perpetrators. The IPT report has singled out Soeharto, former Indonesian president, who led the country’s security and order restoration operation command, for his role in the purge of Indonesia Communist Party (PKI) members and sympathisers. Soeharto’s successor to the post could also be held accountable.

“The recomandations are urgent and without qualification,” Zakeria read the verdict in Cape Town, South Africa, screened live yesterday in YLBHI. The former South African Constitution Court judge expressed that the IPT 1965 derives its moral authority from the voices of victims as well as national and international civil society.

The Indonesian government, however, has rejected the verdict. “The IPT group and its activities has no legal standing,” said Arrmanatha Nasir, a spokesman of the Foreign Ministry. The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan has denied the genocide had occurred after 1965 events. “Tell him to come here, prove it,” Luhut said.

A member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Nurh Kholis said that the IPT’s verdict could be taken into consideration by his agency in addressing the 1965 tragedy, which is currently in the process of conclusion. “The development in addressing it is evident. For example, the symposium which was held in April,” he said.

Hikmawanto Juwana, an international law expert at the University of Indonesia (UI), sees that the IPT’s verdict has no legal power. More so that the tribunal was held without taking into account the Indonesian government’s statement. “The tribunal’s verdict only has moral power,” he said.

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