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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.41
October 9, 2000
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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.
1)
Miss Sulami - A HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER by Tim Gill
After an attempted coup d'etat, a young Suharto declared that
all members and supporters of the Communist Part of Indonesia
(PKI) should be put to death. This sparked a wave of
killings which dwarfs the horrors of even World War II. In
1965 and 1966 an estimated 2-3 million people were murdered -
many by their neighbours or workmates.
Anyone who was a member of the PKI (which was very popular at
the time) could be killed or jailed without trial. And the
population carried this out with disturbing voracity.
Miss Sulami survived the initial rampage in 1965, but because
she is one of the most authentic humans in the world, she decided
to continue openly supporting the deposed leader Sukarno (who she
felt was a truly great leader - one who had led the nation out of
colonialism) and stayed on as Secretary General of the
progressive women's movement Gerwani. For these `crimes',
she was jailed in 1966. She was given a ridiculous trial
without even a lawyer to represent her. She spent the next
20 years of her life in Indonesian prisons, working the system to
get enough to eat, smuggling in newspapers before dawn to keep up
with the news, and (ironically) offering advice to her inmates on
how to make the best of a corrupt court system in order to reduce
their sentences. Through her illegal reading, Miss Sulami
discovered part of the horrendous extent of the killings of
1965-66. Her sentence was made bearable by annual visits
from Amnesty International, and she recalls with joy the day she
saw her own picture in a Dutch magazine. This was a day
when she knew that others cared about the injustice she had been
dealt. I guess it made her feel like she was still a real
person in the real world.
Many prisoners were released in the 1970's thanks to pressure
from groups like Amnesty, but Miss Sulami was detained until
1986, probably because of her leadership of Gerwani.
Eventually Suharto had to relent and release all of the political
prisoners. I guess he never met Miss Sulami or anyone like
her. The moment she got out of jail, she went to a caf?
and had a coffee that must have tasted more delicious than
anything she had sipped. The next thing she did was asked
for a job at the coffee shop, and she was given it (I wouldn't
have turned her down either!). She worked there and saved
enough money so that she could go on a trip. She certainly
deserved a holiday.
But this was no holiday - she was on a mission to find
evidence of the massacre, searching for remains of bodies in
remote parts of the archipelago. And she did find evidence;
enough to interest a TV crew from SBS to make a
documentary. She took the crew to a forest where she knew
there were some bones and told the local authorities that they
were environmentalists and she was taking them to look at some
plants, placing herself at extremely high risk. But they
managed to take the film and get out of town before the
authorities could catch them, and the documentary helped educate
the rest of the world about the massacre. Many people asked
her to write books for which she was paid, and she used the money
to fund more fact-finding field trips. Now she lives with
several other women who have survived the massacre and the
ensuing prison sentence, and continues to push boldly for the
cases of the victims of the 1965 massacre to be re-opened.
She outlined some of the difficulties that her and her fellow
inmates have faced since being finally released. They lost
their homes and land, which were taken over by others many years
ago. They lost their families, either by forced re-marriage
or because they were not allowed to communicate with them during
the long years in prison. They lost their employability, as
skills became outdated or bsolete. They lost their freedom
to participate in society - even now their identity cards bear a
mark that identifies them as former prisoners or PKI supporters,
which provides a mechanism for handing down to the next
generation of bureaucrats and police the discrimination the
victims have faced for 35 years.
In spite of all this, there has been no formal apology for the
wrongful imprisonment of people. The PKI is still banned,
despite some attempts by President Wahid to lift the ban on the
party. There have been no reparations or compensation for
political prisoners like Miss Sulami and her friends.
Instead she faces threats of violence which force her to keep
moving house. The reason she moved so far out of Jakarta
was because anxious neighbours threatened her.
Recently some of her new neighbours told Miss Sulami that
unless she moved from this new area, they would burn her house
down. Such is the nervousness of many Indonesian people
whose consciences no doubt still burn with the sins that kept
innocent people in jail for so long and slayed millions of their
own compatriots.
SNB is now trying to collect evidence from those brave enough
to speak to work towards re-opening the cases of these victims,
but it is a difficult task, for which they currently have no
funding. What is clear is that many people will do anything
to prevent the truth from ever coming out about the massacre and
the treatment of the victims. And while this astounding
horror remains ignored, Indonesia's hopes of a brighter future
must remain suppressed. But still Miss Sulami carries on.
Now well into her seventies, she is planning more trips to gather
evidence while looking for a way to move house again before it
gets burnt down.
So what is her motivation? What keeps her going?
She told me her motivation is "human rights and humanity;
that the situation was extremely unjust; that people had no
consideration for right or wrong; and that such an immense number
of people were killed."
Miss Sulami is perhaps most astounding for her nature.
The fact is that in the face of seemingly endless injustice and
suffering, she does not have the air of a bitter old woman.
She smiles and laughs easily, and she is very patient with
non-Bahasa-speaking foreigners.
She actually seems to have some sympathy for those who
conducted the killings, saying they felt they could not disobey
orders at the time, and believed they were 'cleansing' the nation
from atheistic. Communist forces. To me, this strong and
compassionate woman has somehow found true happiness - the
happiness that can only come from leading a truly authentic
life. May she live to see the true reconciliation that she
longs and strives for!
P.S. The news reaching us indicates of her office being set on
fire in mid-September. (for the complete text please write to timgill@ahrchk.org)
2)
THE DEBATE FOR A GOVERNMENTS HUMAN RIGHTS CHARTER Gathers
Momentum.
Working towards an Asian mechanism for human rights and an
Asian Charter for Human rights by the Governments for the
region has been part of the debate on HR in Asia for many years
now. In several of the sub-regions there had been discussion on
sub-regional charters, the best among them being the ASEAN draft.
However, this process towards an Asian charter gathered new
momentum when the Association of the Asian Parliamentarians for
Peace-AAPP, forwarded a Draft Charter to be discussed on 5-8
November 2000 in Cambodia at a gathering of AAPP. In our view the
draft as it is presented, is very defective and an adoption of a
charter should take place only after an open consultation in
which everyone has the possibility to participate . That being
said, we welcome the draft presented by AAPP as a start to an
Asia wide debate and discussion. We call upon everyone to take an
active interest in the debate. All documents relating to the
charter are available with us and can be made available to
anyone on request.
A regional NGO Consultation was held on the draft AAPP between
2-3 October in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. The participants made a
critical review of the charter and submitted a report on the
basis of the consultation.(This report is also available with
us). The Asia Human Rights Commission-AHRC took the
initiative in developing an Asian Human Rights Charter as a
Peoples Charter. The consultation for the document lasted for
almost five years. It was declared in May 1998 in Kwangju, South
Korea copies of which are available in 13 languages. This
document has also highlighted some of the vital issues to be
addressed when adopting a charter by the Asian Governments. The
process followed in adopting People's Charter, can be used as a
model for ensuring the widest possible discussion and
participation on the government sponsored charter.(More
information and ideas on this will be discussed in our future
issues). All documents relating to Peoples Charter is in our
website: www.ahrchk.net
3)
SEXUAL RIGHTS: UN Dialogue On Women Indicates Shift In
Thinking
The debate over how to cut global population growth has turned
into a campaign for female sexual rights by women in the United
Nations, particularly Nafis Sadik, executive director of the UN
Population Fund, the New York Times reports. The UNFPA's annual
report, released last month, says that "if women had the
power to make decisions about sexual activity and its
consequences, they could avoid many of the 80 million unwanted
pregnancies each year, 20 million unsafe abortions, some 750,000
maternal deaths and many times that number of infections and
injuries. They could also avoid many of the 333 million sexually
transmitted infections contracted each year." The needs of
women are often "invisible to men," the report also
notes. Until discrimination against women ends, the world's
poorest countries cannot develop to their potential, it
adds. According to the report:
A woman dies every minute of pregnancy-related causes;
Sexually transmitted diseases afflict women five times more than
men;
An estimated two-thirds of the 300 million children without
access to education are girls, and two-thirds of the 880 million
illiterate adults are women; and
Some 99% of the estimated 500,000 maternal deaths each year are
in developing countries.
4)
INT'L CRIMINAL COURT: Thailand Accedes To Rome Statute
Thailand yesterday became the first Southeast Asian country to
accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
which, when ratified, will have jurisdiction over cases of
genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of
aggression. Although 114 countries have acceded to the treaty,
only 20 have formally ratified the statute. Sixty states must
ratify it before it enters into force.
5) ANNOUNCEMENT
A joint study, visit and a discussion on Maluku is being
planned by AHRC, Asia Forum and HOM. Any relevant reports,
analysis or even comments are most welcome. You may forward them
either to timgill@ahrchk.org
or to rghr@ahrchk.org
Posted on 2000-10-09
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