Markus Junianto Sihaloho

A lot more could have been done to further their cause during this administration, but they remain optimistic that things will be better in the next.

Relatives of victims of human rights violations and activists said on Monday that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party could have done so much more in the past five years. But they are hopeful that things will change after the presidential election.

Representatives of the group visited the office of the Democrats in East Jakarta and met with several members of the party’s central board, including Ruhut Sitompul, Amir Syamsuddin and Tri Yulianto.

Sumiarsih, the mother of Bernardus Realino Norma Irawan who was shot dead by soldiers on his school campus in the 1998 Semanggi student shooting incident, said during the meeting that Yudhoyono had yet to issue strict policies to settle several human rights issues.

Citing the Lapindo mudflow disaster, she said the case had dragged on despite the president’s promise to human rights activists to settle it fairly and quickly.

The group also said that Democratic lawmakers did not support the settlement of past human rights cases, such as the 1998 Trisakti and Semanggi student shooting incidents, when these were discussed in the House of Representatives.

“[This], even though President Yudhoyono had promised us that he would fully support the settlement of all past human rights cases,” Sumarsih said.

Suciwati, the widow of prominent murdered rights activist Munir Said Thalib, added that Yudhoyono’s government had failed to provide a better response, even though relatives of rights abuse victims and activists held a Kamisan (conducted every Thursday) ritual in front of the State Palace for the past 108 weeks, from 4 p.m. to

5 p.m.

“But until now, there has been no significant response from the government,” Suciwati said.

However, the victims also realized that Yudhoyono and his party were born from the post-Suharto era, which means that in the context of settling past human rights abuses, the victims can rely on the party.

Moreover, Suciwati said, the families were worried about Wiranto and Prabowo, both former military generals during the 1997-98 unrest, running for high office in the upcoming July 8 presidential election.

Wiranto is now chairman of the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) and Prabowo is chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra).

Both have expressed their desire to run in the presidential election. Both parties also face the strong possibility of garnering enough seats in the next House of Representatives.

“We really hope the Democratic Party would be more strict in settling past human rights cases, both in the House of Representatives and in the administration,” Suciwati said.

“We hope that with the majority of seats in the House, the Democratic Party would give significance to the settlement of past human rights cases,” said Edwin Partogi, from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

Tri Yulianto, a member of House’s Commission III overseeing legal affairs, said that his party, the Democrats, is strongly commitment to settling cases of past human rights abuses. However, in the 2004-09 period, he said his party only had 57 out of 550 seats in the House.

“We could not do much [in dealing with past human rights cases] during the period. Bigger factions were more likely to control the situation,” he said.

Ruhut Sitompul said that they would work hard in the next period to settle all the rights cases, consistent with Yudhoyono’s commitment to prioritize legal settlement over political ones.

“We really hope that every one would support us to be successful in the next presidential election,” Sitompul said.

He also said that his party would always avoid cooperating with parties led by individuals linked to past human rights violations, but he did not give names or details.