Government Will Never Apologize for Past Human Rights Violations

VIVA – Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD stated that the government will never apologize to the public for serious human rights violations in the past. It was stated during a meeting on the Recommendation from the Non-Judicial Settlement Team for Serious Human Rights Violations, which was chaired by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on Tuesday.  

"In the recommendation for a non-judicial resolution, there is no apology from the government to the public because of the incident; however, the government acknowledges that the incident did occur, and the government regrets that the incident occurred," the minister said after attending the internal meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.

The Indonesian President has issued Presidential Instruction (Inpres) Number 2 of 2023 on the implementation of non-judicial recommendations for the settlement of serious human rights violations (PPHAM). 

The Inpres tasks 19 ministries and non-ministerial government agencies (K/L) with implementing the recommendation of PPHAM, which is restoring the rights of victims of serious human rights violations fairly and wisely and preventing such violations from happening again. 

"So, there is no apology and no change in legal status for past events. For example, the MPRS TAP No. 25 of 1966 remains in effect as an unaltered decree, then regarding events that have been decided by the court also remain valid," the minister said. 

It means the PPHAM Monitoring Team will focus on the victims of 12 past incidents involving serious human rights violations, according to Minister Mahfud. 

"Obviously, the government cannot add to these incidents because, according to the law, it is Komnas HAM that determines serious human rights violations or not; and Komnas HAM recommends 12 incidents that occurred tens of years ago," he informed. 

The 12 incidents include the 1965–1966 Incident, the Mysterious Shooting Incident of 1982–1985, the Talangsari Incident in Lampung in 1989, the Rumoh Geudong and Pos Sattis Incident in Aceh in 1989, the Incident of Forced Disappearance of Persons in 1997–1998, and the May 1998 riots.