Marzuki Darusman (born 26 January 1945) is an Indonesian lawyer and human rights campaigner who served as the Attorney General of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001. He currently serves as the chairman of an UN Human Rights Council mission on Myanmar since July 2017. He is the Director-General of the Human Rights Resource Centre for ASEAN.
Darusman has served on several national and international human rights commissions, he has served as chair of an independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar under the UN Human Rights Council since July 2017. He served as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK (2010–2016) and member of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea (2013 to 2014). In 2010, he was assigned to serve as chair of the UN Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka and in 2009 he was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to a three-member UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Background
Darusman was born in Bogor, West Java, in 1945. The son of Suryono Darusman, a diplomat, he spent much of his childhood in Europe; this later influenced his thoughts on social norms and equality, as Darusman found the class differences present in Indonesia disturbing. His brother, Chandra, went on to be a composer.
In 1974 he graduated from law school at Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung. With Golkar, Darusman spent fifteen years as a member of the People's Representative Council, representing Bandung.
In 1994, Darusman was one of the first members of the National Commission on Human Rights. In 1998, after the fall of President Suharto in May, Darusman was a member of the Joint Fact Finding Team, which looked into the widespread rioting and pogroms before the president's resignation. Meanwhile, Darusman seized power within Golkar – torn between pro- and contra-Suharto factions – and reorganised the party. He subsequently convinced the party to support Muslim cleric Abdurrahman Wahid, of Nahdlatul Ulama, for president.
National offices
In November 1999 Darusman was chosen Attorney General of Indonesia, replacing acting Prosecutor General Ismudjoko; he had previously been considered for Foreign Minister, a post which ultimately went to Alwi Shihab. In the position, he worked to combat corruption; among those convicted for corruption while Darusman served were former Minister of Trade and Industry Bob Hasan and Bank of Indonesia governor Syahril Sabirin; he also limited Suharto's movements and brought corruption charges against the former president and several charities he ran. In criminal law, Darusman was instrumental in removing former Chief of the Armed Forces Wiranto from his cabinet position, later bringing Wiranto to trial for alleged human rights violations in East Timor and several military members to trial for issues in Aceh. During this time, he was the third most heavily guarded political figure in the country, behind President Wahid and Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Darusman's term ended in June 2001, when he was replaced with former Minister of Law and Human Rights Baharuddin Lopa. The following month he was appointed Cabinet Secretary. From 2004 to 2009 Darusman served as a member of the People's Representative Council, representing Golkar.
Work with the United Nations
In 2008, Darusman was called by Lynn Pascoe, an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, to participate in the United Nations inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He accepted, and the committee spent nine months investigating the incident through 2009. In June 2010, he was appointed to a three-person panel to write the Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, which dealt with alleged war crimes during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The report, which found evidence of numerous war crimes and condemned both the Sri Lankan government and its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, was ill-received in Sri Lanka, leading Darusman to be burned in effigy and refused entry to the island nation.
