Indonesia’s president regrets country’s past rights violations

ISTANBUL

Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday offered a state-level public apology over “gross human rights violations” that have occurred in the Southeast Asian country.

“With a clear, genuine mind and conscience, I as a head of state acknowledge that there were gross human rights violations that did happen in many events,” Widodo said.

“And I strongly regret that those violations occurred,” he said in a speech, broadcast online, at the State Palace in the capital Jakarta.

“I have sympathy and empathy for the victims and their families.”

Referring to around 12 incidents between 1965 and 2003, including anti-communist violence in the 1960s and the disappearance of student demonstrators in the late 1990s, Widodo said: “The government would seek to restore the rights of victims fairly and wisely without negating judicial resolving.”

The world’s largest Muslim-populated nation had seen violent crackdowns, arrests, and killings in 1965 after then-General Suharto and the military launched a coup and took over the country.

Later, in 1998, when mass demonstrations brought down the three-decade dictatorship of Suharto, many students were abducted and murdered.

Unconfirmed estimates claim at least 500,000 people were killed in the 1960s violence.

Widodo also acknowledged rights abuses in the restive easternmost province of Papua.