Lhokseumawe: Indonesia’s president vowed on Tuesday to “heal” the pain caused by serious human rights violations by compensating those who suffered during the country’s dictatorship years.
“This (resolution) is needed to heal the nation’s pain caused by past gross human rights violations which have left a heavy burden for the victims,” President Joko Widodo said Monday in northwestern Aceh province.
The region hosted a nearly three-decade-long insurgency that ended in 2005 and was the site of at least three recorded mass killings that resulted in dozens of deaths.
“This wound must be healed immediately so we can move forward,” Widodo added during a ceremony in Pidie, near a site once used by the military to torture civilians.
In January, Widodo said the government deeply regretted a dozen state-orchestrated mass human rights violations committed in the country’s past.
A bloody anti-communist purge in the 1960s saw half a million leftists massacred, and in 1998 dozens of student activists disappeared during mass street protests that brought down the three-decade-long Suharto dictatorship.
Widodo also mentioned 10 other violations that took place between the 1960s and the early 2000s.
“The government is now focusing on the nonjudicial resolution, which focuses on rehabilitating the victims’ rights without negating the judicial mechanism,” he said.
Under the program, the government will provide financial settlements, scholarships, and direct cash aid for the victims and their children.
Human rights activists welcomed the government’s gesture but said the task was still huge.
“This is a step forward, better than nothing, but of course, it’s not enough,” Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono told AFP.
One of the victims of a mass killing in North Aceh on May 3, 1999, recalled the moment that left him with lifelong trauma.
Murtala was 28 years old when military personnel opened fire on a crowd gathering near a paper mill in the town of Lhokseumawe.
The shooting followed reports that a soldier had gone missing at a time when rebels were fighting government forces for Aceh’s independence.
“I heard shots fired, and I hid under a truck to save myself, but somebody grabbed me and hit me in the head and chest with a gun repeatedly. They also stomped on my body,” Murtala told AFP.
He fell unconscious when a man was shot dead in front of him. He woke up three days later in a hospital only to be told his older brother was killed in the riot.
The National Human Rights Commission or Komnas HAM reported 21 people were killed in the clash, but activists claim 46 people died.
Murtala, also the head of the victims association, said many of them have not been identified or recognized and therefore might not receive any compensation.
“This is unacceptable, and this will hurt justice. We, as the victims, hope for justice to prevail,” he said.
Indonesia to compensate victims of bloody past
https://arab.news/5j6gq
Indonesia to compensate victims of bloody past
- A bloody anti-communist purge in the 1960s saw half a million leftists massacred
- Under the program, the government will provide financial settlements, scholarships, and direct cash aid for the victims and their children
Cuba says a 5th person died after people on a Florida-flagged speedboat opened fire on soldiers
- Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops
- The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities
HAVANA: Cuba said a fifth person has died as a consequence of a fatal shootout last month involving a Florida-flagged speedboat that allegedly opened fire on soldiers in waters off the island nation’s north coast.
The island’s interior ministry said late Thursday in a statement that Roberto Álvarez Ávila died on March 4 as a result of his injuries. It added that the remaining injured detainees “continue to receive specialized medical care according to their health status.”
Authorities in Cuba said that on Feb. 26 Cuban soldiers confronted a speedboat carrying 10 people as the vessel approached the island and opened fire on the troops. They said the passengers were armed Cubans living in the US who were trying to infiltrate the island and “unleash terrorism”. Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others.
“The statements made by the detainees themselves, together with a series of investigative procedures, reinforce the evidence against them,” the Cuban interior ministry said in its statement, adding that “new elements are being obtained that establish the involvement of other individuals based in the US”
Earlier this week, Cuba said it had filed terrorism charges against six suspects that were on the speedboat. The government unveiled items said to have been found on the boat, including a dozen high-powered weapons, more than 12,800 pieces of ammunition and 11 pistols.
Cuban authorities have provided few details about the shooting, but said the boat was roughly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) northeast of Cayo Falcones, off the country’s north coast. They also provided the boat’s registration number, but The Associated Press was unable to readily verify the details because boat registrations are not public in the state of Florida.
The shooting threatened to increase tensions between US President Donald Trump and Cuban authorities. The island’s economy was until recently largely kept economically afloat by Venezuela’s oil, which is now in doubt after a US military operation deposed then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
