President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to follow-up on the findings of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) that categorized the 1965 massacre of communists as a gross violation of human rights.

“I have given orders to the Attorney General to study the findings and report back to me and other relevant parties,” Yudhoyono said after a Cabinet meeting at the AGO on Wednesday.

Yudhoyono, meanwhile, will consult the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court on what to do with Komnas HAM’s report. â??Because this concerns the history of this country, I have to consult with other government institutions like the Supreme Court and the House,” Yudhoyono said.

On Monday, Komnas HAM announced that the state-sponsored purge that followed the 1965 aborted coup met all the criteria of a gross violation of human rights, and that government officials were involved in the systematic and widespread killing of members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and countless other civilians with political ties to the group.

Komnas HAM also called for the establishment of a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (KKR).

The commission suggested Yudhoyono publicly apologize to all the victims of the violence and their families and to reinstate the rights of the survivors.

On Wednesday, activists and survivors of the purge praised Komnas HAM for its efforts to uncover the countryâ??s dark past.

“I give the commission the highest possible praise for finally finishing this report after all these years,â? said Bedjo Untung, head of the 1965/1966 Murder Victims Research Foundation (YPKP 1965/1966), on Wednesday.

Bedjo, who was incarcerated in 1967 without a proper trial, said that the ball was now in the hands of the AGO to start its own investigation based on Komnas HAMâ??s findings.

Bedjo said that the judiciary should also set up an ad hoc human rights tribunal, based on Law No. 26/2000 on human rights tribunals, to start prosecuting rights abusers.

Mugiyanto, who chairs the Families of Missing Persons Association (IKOHI), added that the scale of the 1965 purge, which some estimates say resulted in the deaths of as many as 500,000 people, also called for non-judicial solutions.

“Judicial solutions will not be enough to cover all the necessary bases. Thatâ??s why they should be complemented with non-judicial actions, like compensation, restitution and public acknowledgements of the truth,” said Mugiyanto.

However, some activists were pessimistic as to whether the government would take any action at all.

“All other past cases of gross human rights abuses that have been brought to the government’s attention have not even been touched,” said Mudjayin, an 82-year-old journalist who said he was imprisoned without trial on Maluku’s Buru Island between 1969 and 1979.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) recently accused the AGO of stalling investigations into incidents of gross human rights violations, such as the Talangsari massacre of 1989.

â??The Attorney General’s Office may likely use the death of Soeharto as an excuse to close the case. They and other officials will probably say that the main perpetrator is gone as a way of preventing a tribunal,” Bedjo said.

Earlier, Albert Hasibuan, a member of the Presidential Advisory Council (Wantimpres) focusing on legal and human rights issues, said that the Komnas HAM report would inform recommendations delivered to Yudhoyono in regards to national reconciliation.

“The conclusions drawn by Komnas HAM are a great entry point to formulate the concept of national reconciliation concerning the victims of human rights violations,” Albert said. (png)