Perdana Meeting In Surabaya, PPHAM Ready To Solve Heavy Human Rights Violations Non-judicially

Photo: Doc. Antara

SURABAYA - The severe Human Rights Violations Settlement Team (PPHAM) in the past held its inaugural meeting in the city of Surabaya, East Java, Sunday, September 25. This team was formed based on Presidential Decree (Kepres) Number 17 of 2022 concerning the Establishment of the Non-Juniary Settlement Team for Violations of Rights that are Heavy in the Past.

"The name of his team is PPHAM. It is his duty to non-judicially resolve past gross human rights violations as a manifestation of moral responsibility, national politics, in order to end the nation's injuries in order to create national and state harmony," said Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menkopolhukam) Mahfud MD as quoted by Antara.

According to him, the background of the formation of this team is because the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has difficulty processing its cases through a judicial mechanism.

Mahfud said that the institution that has the authority to determine gross human rights violations is only Komnas HAM, which is through the investigation process and the decision of the plenary session.

"Komnas HAM stated that currently there are 13 gross human rights violations left. Nine cases occurred before Law Number 26 of 2000 was made on the Human Rights Court. In addition, four cases occurred after the issuance of Law Number 26 of 2000," he said.

Mahfud said there were several cases that Komnas HAM had submitted through a judicial mechanism. Two of them were serious human rights incidents that occurred before the issuance of Law Number 26 of 2000, namely after a poll in East Timor and the Tanjung Priok incident.

Another serious human rights incident that has been tried in court occurred after the issuance of Law Number 26 of 2000, namely the Abepura incident.

"For the nine cases of human rights violations that occurred before the issuance of Law Number 26 of 2000 and have been investigated by Komnas HAM, until now they are still waiting for the process of forming an ad hoc human rights court. Meanwhile, the four cases that occurred after the issuance of Law Number 26 of 2000 are still being processed to be resolved through a permanent Human Rights Court," he said.

In addition, he continued, the settlement through a judicial mechanism using Law Number 27 of 2004 concerning the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) has been canceled by the Constitutional Court. Currently, a new draft KKR Law is being submitted.

"So while waiting for the new KKR Law, the Presidential Decree No. 17 of 2022 is issued regarding the formation of a non-judicial settlement team for gross human rights violations in the past, or called the PPHAM Team. Its formation has nothing to do with contemporary politics. This is purely a sustainable state task and we must continue with whoever the government is. Because the effort to form it has gone through a long series starting in 2007," he said.

The working period of the PPHAM Team has been calculated since the issuance of Presidential Decree Number 17 of 2022 until the last 31 December 2022.

The head of the Makarim PPHAM Team, Wibisono, said that the results of the inaugural meeting in Surabaya would start their duties by studying as many as 13 cases of gross human rights violations in the past, as have been determined by Komnas HAM.

"God willing, in the near future we will start conducting studies and meeting face-to-face with the victims and the figures involved. We have also scheduled focus groups discussion in several places in the country," said Makarim.