Human Rights Activists Facing More Difficult Days Ahead

Jakarta, July 3 (Antara) - Human rights activists and victims of human right abuses are facing much tougher days in fighting abuses of human rights in the country. Karlina Supelli, a woman philosopher, who is active in calling for human right protection, said victims of human rights abuses are confronted with a generation, which is not aware of or who have forgotten gross human rights violations in the past. "On top of that those committing the crimes against humanity are more arrogant," Karlina said in a lecture on human rights organized by Omah Munir, here on Wednesday night. Omah Munir is an organization of human rights activists named after leading human rights activist Munir, who died after being poisoned on board an aircraft on his way to the Netherlands years earlier. Karlina, who was invited by the Jakarta Culture Council to speak at the occasion , called on Indonesians never to forget human rights abuses in the country in the past. "Why we need to always remember them? In the country`s history there had been no punishment meted out for gross violation of human rights ," she said. She said the louder call for struggle against human rights abuses at present has no political motive, pointing out it has nothing to do with political campaigns ahead of the presidential election on July 9. "Under the present political situation, every talk on human rights is accused of being politically motivated," she said. The allegation is false, she said, adding activists and victims of human rights abuses have never ceased in their fight for human right protection, she said. The fight was no less intense even long before the political campaign began to bring to justice those committing human rights abuses in the past, she added stopping short of naming the alleged perpetrators. Munir`s widow Suciwati said many people of the present generation are not aware of human rights violations in the country in the past. "This is a difficult homework for us human rights activists. When we established Omah Munir we hoped to introduce a life style that people would highly value human rights . We think we could do it through cultural approach," Suciwati said. Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, who was also invited to speak on the occasion said there were extreme points related to human rights . "In my experience there are still people who believe human rights is limitless. This is extreme as our rights are always restricted by the rights of other people," he said. Another extreme point is that some people feel they always are the right ones and feel they have the right to force other people to share what they believe right. "The challenge related to human rights is regulation and law enforcement," he said.