Human rights are relevant to every human being.
The one basic principle of human rights is that they are universal, which means they are attached to everyone.
Rights do not see differences in cultural background, ethnicity, social status, religion and gender.
In an attack by a group of armed civilians against security forces in two places in Papua, eight soldiers were killed, along with four civilians.
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) commissioner Natalius Pigai stated that Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel were victims of the shooting of armed civilian groups in Papua due to neglect of duty. This is a very regrettable statement.
The statement certainly increases the pain and heartache of the families of the victims. The TNI has asked that Natalius clarify his claim and apologize to the families of the victims.
As human rights apply to all human beings, they apply to the soldiers who have become the victims of this attack. Why have these actions not been categorized as a human rights violation? This case proves that the implementation of human rights in Indonesia is still discriminatory. Especially in Papua, human rights applies only to groups of armed civilians, not to the TNI or the police.
Seeing this case, we can make the conclusion that the implementation of human rights in Indonesia suffers from favoritism.
Civilians can also commit human rights violations, as happened with this group of armed civilians that has murdered security forces personnel.
If activists want to talk about human rights, they should understand that the application of those rights should not be reserved for certain groups only, but should be enforced for anyone, regardless of status. That’s why human rights are universal.
Nurhadi Syahputra
East Java