Komnas HAM, Govt Agree to Solve Past Human Rights Violations

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) have agreed to continue the legal process of one of Indonesia’s worst human rights violations cases known as the first and the second Semanggi tragedies. 

“Yes, it will move ahead,” said Komnas HAM chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik at the headquarters of the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs on Friday. 

Taufan, who was accompanied by a number of Komnas HAM commissioners and Coordinating Minister Mahfud MD, said the meeting between the two agencies was mainly to strengthen communication and clarify a number of polemics in mass media. 

“Such as clarifying the statement coming from the Attorney General. We actually agreed to sit together without having to create a public brouhaha and focus on solving judicial and non-judicial issues,” Taufan added. 

He explained the Komnas HAM as an institution has conducted an independent investigation into the Semanggi tragedies. He also asserted that it would provide the Attorney General with the required pieces of evidence to continue the legal process.

Mahfud MD also took the opportunity to clarify that the Attorney General’s statement on the Semanggi human rights violations was in the capacity of reiterating what was once claimed by the House of Representatives (DPR), which said the Semanggi cases were not human rights violations. 

ANTARA