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View all search resultsAnalysis: Acid attack puts spotlight on Prabowo’s human rights commitment
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An activist lights up a candle during a prayer gathering on March 17 for Andrie Yunus, a Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) activist targeted in an acid attack, in front of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) in Jakarta. (Antara/Darryl Ramadhan)
P
resident Prabowo Subianto is hardly known for his commitment to human rights, not since taking up the presidency in October 2024 and certainly not during his Army years. He rarely addresses the issue in public, delegating it instead to his Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai to answer questions on the topic.
But with the March 6 acid attack against a human rights defender, Prabowo can no longer avoid the issue, especially since the Indonesian Military (TNI) has announced that four members of the TNI’s Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS) are under investigation.
The attack against Andrie Yunus, deputy coordinator for external affairs for the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), has drawn condemnations from hundreds of international and national nongovernmental organizations who have question Indonesia’s commitment to human rights and protection of human rights defenders.
It is all the more disturbing since Indonesia this year takes the rotating presidency of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, called on the Indonesian authorities to carry out thorough investigations. ”Impunity for violence against human rights defenders is unacceptable,” she wrote on her social media, according to Tempo.
During a meeting with a small group of journalists and critics early this month, Prabowo was asked to comment on the attack. He described it as an “act of terrorism”, but refused to commit himself to the establishment of an independent team, which many view as necessary for the investigation to have any credibility.
The way the TNI literally wrestled the case from police has already raised doubts that the investigation will be anything but credible.
