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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
E-Newsletter
Vol.1 No.7
July 26, 1999
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Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is now available online at: http://www.rghr.net
Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is a weekly e-newsletter issued by Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic and Christian Groups on Human Rights, initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission.
Why It is an
Humanitarian Duty to Support the Call to Bring Suharto to Trial
Once graves wrong are
done there is no way to bring about a correction without coming
to understand the wrong done, to come to regret wrong and to make
genuine resolve to never to repeat it. This is a self-evident
truth. For Christians this is expressed by the view of fall and
redemption and others have their own ways expressing the same.
Correcting wrong involves a genuine attempt to change. And the
change has to pass through human beings with mind, memory and
sprit. The psychic aspect of correcting wrong is admission of
wrong and genuine resolve to abandon the wrong path. This is
something that an individual can do, but the society as whole has
to go through this process. This is an imperative. There is no
way to opt out of it. What happens when a society does not go
through this process? There will be inevitable anarchy and
violence. The uncorrected wrong begets demoralisation and
demoralize society can descend to any kind of inhumanity. A
thirty-five years of bloody history, falsehood and fraud and
every type of evil that can be thought of need recognition, in
order to avoid repetition. Those who are motivated by religious
and humanitarian motives owe a duty to take an active part in
this, or otherwise it can denigrate into revenge. There are
beneficiaries of anarchy and violence. It is a pity, if they are
allowed to have their way.
In short you must do
something now.
What can you do?
- The least is to
sign the petition and send as indicated: get the
petitions widely circulated
- In your own group
you can take special actions. Write to your counterparts
in Indonesia to express support. Write to leaders of the
religious group you belong to and take active part in
this campaign; write to world leaders of your religious
group to do the same.
- You can take a
personal action which you could repeat daily till the
trial in fact take place- keep a flower in a place you
consider sacred, light a candle or say a prayer. You can
design your own protest and it will soon spread.
This way you can
contribute to a rapid constructive change in Indonesia.
Petition:
Suharto Should be Brought to Trial
During the 32 years of
Suharto's presidency the people of Indonesia have suffered
gravely. Suharto is responsible for crimes against humanity,
political and economic crimes, and flagrant misgovernment.
Up to one million people
were killed during the events which led to his coming to power in
1967. Since then some 200, 000 have been massacred in East Timor,
and tens of thousands in Aceh, Lampung, Irian Jaya. Suharto
has caused hundreds of thousands to be detained arbitrarily for
years (on Buru Island alone ten thousand were detained without
trial, on average for ten years). For 3 decades millions of
ex-political prisoners were obliged to carry special identity
cards stating their status, thus making it almost impossible for
them to lead a normal life (to obtain work etc).
Suharto and his family
have amassed a fortune estimated at 15 billion U.S. dollars (TIME
Magazine, 17 May 1999). Under his regime "K.K.N."
(Korruption, Kollusion and Nepotism) flourished at all levels in
Indonesia.
To bring Suharto to a
fair trial would satisfy a sense of justice and be a lesson for
future generations in Indonesia and elsewhere. But for this to
become possible, strong pressure from international opinion is
needed in order to bolster the efforts being made in Indonesia to
this effect, as well as to reform government and society and
establish a responsible
democracy.
Therefore the
undersigned supports the campaign for Suharto to be tried fairly,
by an independent court of justice".
NOTES: Please forward
the above-mentioned text of this petition among your friends and
your contacts in various organisations in your country (and also
in other countries, including those in Indonesia), and request
them to send the NAMES and ORGANISATIONS willing to support this
campaign, by E-mail to "Contact-Indonesia" through
nico.albert@fnac.net.
(We will put their names
in the long list of this international petition).
Announcements
For new documents on
Caste and Human Rights see our web-site Human Rights
Correspondence School at www.hrschool.org [look under HR
Education Material], especially the ANNIHILATION OF CASTE, which
is considered the best work on Indian caste system.
Posted on 1999-07-26
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