November 11, 2015•Update: November 11, 2015
By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Indonesia has slammed the organizers of a "People’s Tribunal" held in the Netherlands this week, saying it does not have to respond to a court probing allegations state apparatus was responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of suspected Communists 50 years ago.
Secretary of State Pratikno said that President Joko Widodo had given directives that Indonesia should be left alone to solve the problem.
"The direction from Mr. President is that we have a legal system ourselves," Pratikno was quoted as saying by Kompas.com.
The tribunal is being held Nov. 10-13 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of a period that saw people all over Indonesia rounded up and murdered after being accused of membership or support of the Indonesian Communist Party.
It aims to promote reconciliation by exposing the truth about the killings while shedding light on what organizers call "the darkest days in Indonesia’s post-colonial history".
On Wednesday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla highlighted that history, saying that if the court wants to be taken seriously it also needs to prosecute crimes committed by a number of Western countries in Indonesia in the wars of the 20th century.
"The trial is not a real court. If it was a real court, it could take years," Antara News quoted him as saying of the tribunal Wednesday, which has no formal legal powers.
Kalla claimed that more Indonesians were killed by foreign troops during the centuries of colonialism compared to people who died in the events from 1965-1966.
The government need not apologize to anyone over events in which an estimated 500,000 people died, he added.
An invitation to the government to attend the hearings was reported to have gone unanswered.
Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, the general coordinator of the tribunal, told Tempo.com last week that the trial would see seven judges, six international prosecutors and 16 witnesses take part.
"The [government's] apology would be the first step toward recognition of the crimes the government committed in the past," she said.
A nine-count indictment sees human rights lawyers -- acting as prosecutors -- charge the Indonesian state with crimes including murder, torture and sexual violence that saw dictator Suharto, whose authoritarian rule lasted for three decades, sweep into power.
They will examine evidence including testimony from 16 witness, and data from a number of Indonesian and foreign researchers.
On Wednesday, the trial's focus fell on discussing the torture of political prisoners and sexual violence against those who were female.
Basuki Bowo, one of the victims, relayed how he was detained in a concentration camp in Buru Island, Maluku, because he was a member of the Consentrasi Gerakan Mahasiswa Indonesia -- a leftist student organization.
"I never saw a warrant, and never received any explanation. There was no explanation whatsoever," he said.
Bowo has said that he was held for 14 years without remission and without trial. After being released from Buru in 1979, he continued to have to report every three months to a military office in South Jakarta.
Expert witness Asvi Warman Adam, a historian at the Indonesian Science Institute, told the tribunal that Buru was "the most obvious" system of oppression.
Some 1,600 political prisoners are believed to have been incarcerated at the camp from 1969 to 1979.
For the third and fourth days, the trial will discuss other countries involved in the alleged massacre.
