Komnas HAM: PKI Labeling Without Justice Cannot Happen Again

Office of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Ahmad Taufan Damanik reminded that the practice of punishing or labeling people accused of being PKI without a trial should not happen again.

"During the New Order era, many people without a judicial process were accused of being PKI. That's sad," said the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Ahmad Taufan Damanik, when contacted in Jakarta, Antara, Sunday, April 3.

Personally, Taufan, who recently visited Europe, met with PKI people and people accused of being PKI. Currently, they are elderly (elderly).

They, said Taufan, cannot or are allowed to return to their country. The reason was because they were considered pro-Soekarno or labeled PKI. "So, a practice like this should not happen without a trial, without clear evidence," he said.

However, he did not deny that some of them were actually PKI.

However, for people who are not PKI and are only members of the Indonesian National Student Movement (GMNI) and are refused to return to Indonesia, Komnas HAM regrets it.

He added that the TNI Commander General Andika Perkasa's move to allow descendants of the PKI to participate in the TNI selection, was considered by Komnas HAM as a progressive breakthrough.

"Let us as a state in any sector depart from the existing constitution or laws and regulations, not political assumptions," he said.

It is known that the TNI Commander General Andika Perkasa made three breakthroughs at the 2022 TNI Admissions Coordination Meeting, namely the abolition of the swimming test, the abolition of academic tests, and the abolition of the ban on descendants of PKI members as candidates for TNI soldiers.