LAKSAMANA.Net, March 2, 2005 07:05 PM
US Slams Indonesia's Human Rights Record
Laksamana.Net - Indonesia's human rights record remains poor, despite democratic
reform, with state security forces accused of murdering, torturing and raping civilians
in conflict areas, says the US State Department.
In its annual report on human rights practices in Indonesia, the State Department said
most of the abuses occurred in Aceh province and to a lesser extent in Papua, where
excessive and sometimes deadly force was used in arresting suspects and in
attempting to obtain information or a confession.
The report, released on Monday (28/2/05), also said retired and active military officers
known to have committed serious human rights violations were promoted to senior
positions in the government and the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI).
Indonesian officials generally ignore such reports, given America's appalling human
rights record in Iraq and elsewhere. Interestingly, all of the criticism outlined in the
report has not stopped US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice from deciding to
resume a military training program for Indonesian forces.
Despite the criticism, there was some praise for Indonesia's achievements in 2004.
"During the year, the government made further progress in its transition from three
decades of repressive and authoritarian rule to a more pluralistic and representative
democracy. The country held successful legislative elections and free, fair, and
peaceful direct presidential elections," said the report.
"The military and the police lost their non-elected seats in parliament. The government
passed the Domestic Violence Act, which criminalizes domestic violence, and took
steps to address trafficking in persons, including prosecuting traffickers and beginning
to strengthen anti-trafficking laws. The government issued a decree authorizing the
establishment of a 40-member Papuan People's Council. The government also took
serious legal measures to bring terrorists to justice," it added.
The report strongly criticized Indonesia's theoretically independent judiciary, saying
the courts remain subject to outside influences, including the executive branch. "The
judicial system was corrupt, which contributed to the failure to provide redress to
victims of human rights violations or hold perpetrators accountable. Security force
violators sometimes used intimidation and bribery to avoid justice."
But the report acknowledged that security forces showed greater willingness to hold
accountable human rights violators within their ranks. "During the year, hundreds of
soldiers were court-martialed, and dozens of police officers were dismissed or
otherwise disciplined," it said. However, it said most of the disciplinary actions
involved low-level officers and sometimes mid-level officers who committed lesser
crimes, such as beatings, and in some cases punishments did not match the crime.
The report said the division of responsibilities between TNI (formally responsible for
external defense) and the National Police (responsible for internal security) remained
unclear. "A civilian defense minister oversees the military but in practice exercised
only limited control over TNI policy and operations. The military and the police
continued to wield significant political influence as well as economic power through
businesses operated by security force members, their proxies, and foundations," it
said.
Following are excerpts from the report. The full report can be read at the US State
Department's website.
Land disputes generated numerous human rights abuses. These frequently involved
forced evictions, some accomplished with lethal force. As in previous years, the
Government jailed some peaceful antigovernment protestors for "insulting the
President" or "spreading hatred against the Government." Politicians and tycoons
showed greater willingness to take legal action against news organizations whose
reporting they found insulting or offensive, and this trend had a chilling effect on some
investigative reporting. Members of the security forces and other groups sometimes
limited freedom of expression by intimidating or attacking journalists whose articles
they found objectionable. The Government restricted the foreign press from traveling to
conflict areas in Aceh, Papua, Sulawesi, and Maluku. Authorities occasionally
tolerated discrimination against and abuse of religious groups by private actors. The
Government at times restricted the activities of nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs), particularly in Aceh and Papua. Women were victims of violence and
discrimination. Female genital mutilation (FGM) occurred in some parts of the
country, although the type practiced was largely symbolic in nature. Child sexual
abuse and violence against children remained serious problems. Trafficking in persons
was a serious problem. Discrimination against persons with disabilities and
mistreatment of indigenous people were problems. The Government allowed new trade
unions to form and operate, but it frequently failed to enforce labor standards or
address violations of worker rights. Forced child labor remained a serious problem.
During the year, the economy, which increasingly was market driven, grew by an
estimated 4.8 percent; however, this failed to reduce unemployment or absorb the
estimated 2.5 million new job seekers entering the market every year. The population
was approximately 238 million. The poverty rate fell from 27 percent in 1999 to 16
percent in 2002; however, it increased slightly to an estimated 17.5 percent during the
year. The estimated per capita income was $867. Consumer demand was the leading
force driving economic growth. At year's end, the northern Sumatra region was struck
by an earthquake and a resultant tsunami, which together left some 240,000 persons
dead and missing in Aceh and North Sumatra Provinces and caused extensive
destruction of infrastructure in Aceh Province.
Security forces continued to commit unlawful killing of rebels, suspected rebels, and
civilians in areas of separatist activity, where most politically motivated extrajudicial
killings also occurred. There was evidence that the TNI considered anyone its forces
killed in conflict areas to have been an armed rebel. Security forces also committed
nonpolitical extrajudicial killings. The Government largely failed to hold soldiers and
police accountable for such killings and other serious human rights abuses in Aceh.
The TNI tried, jailed, and discharged some soldiers for rape, robbery, and torture;
however, no security force members were prosecuted for unlawful killings in Aceh.
In Papua province, the Government continued to conduct operations against rebels of
the Free Papua Movement (OPM), and OPM rebels continued their operations against
military units. Also in Papua, the TNI and police continued their joint investigation of
the 2002 ambush that killed 2 American citizens and 1 Indonesian and injured 12
other persons near a large gold and copper mine near the city of Timika. On June 16,
a foreign court indicted OPM guerilla Anthonious Wamang in connection with the
killings. At year's end, Wamang remained at large, and the investigation remained
open.
Police frequently used deadly force to apprehend suspects or acted recklessly in
pursuit of suspects, and these actions sometimes resulted in the deaths of civilians.
In other cases, suspects in police custody died under suspicious circumstances. On
July 31, in Poso, police shot and injured Bambang, a wrongly accused suspect in the
July murder of Reverend Susianti Tinulele. Police alleged Bambang had tried to
escape, but neighbors said he was shot for no reason. On August 29, in Sragen,
Central Java, police shot and killed three suspects who they claimed tried to escape
from police custody. On August 30, in Pekanbaru, police shot and killed criminal
suspects Hermansyah and Ade Candra, allegedly because the two tried to escape
when police demanded to know the hiding place of their partners.
The Government made no significant progress during the year in prosecuting those
responsible for the 1998 killing of four students at Trisakti University and nine
demonstrators at Semanggi intersection, and the 1999 killing of an additional four
demonstrators at Semanggi. Komnas HAM Chairman Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara
asked the DPR to reverse its 2001 decision not to classify these cases as human
rights violations, but at year's end, the DPR had not responded. In June 2003, the
court-martial began of an enlisted man, one of three TNI soldiers indicted for reckless
killing in connection with the 1999 Semanggi incident. The soldier was accused of
shooting and killing student Yap Yun Hap without orders from his superior. Two other
defendants, who were officers, were to be tried separately. At year's end, all of the
cases were pending in the AGO, awaiting a decision from the DPR.
During the year, bombs exploded in or near the cities of Jakarta, Ambon, Peureulak,
and Poso, among others. On January 10, members of Sulawesi-based Laskar
Jundullah, an extremist organization, bombed a cafe in Palopo, South Sulawesi,
killing four persons. Police arrested at least eight suspects, including alleged
mastermind Agung Abdul Hamid, whose trial started on October 28. On September 9,
suspected JI members set off a powerful bomb in front of the Australian Embassy in
Jakarta, killing 10 persons and injuring more than 150 others. By year's end, the
Government had arrested at least 19 persons in connection with the attack, including
the suspected mastermind Iwan Darmawan, also known as Rois.
The Government made significant progress in prosecuting those responsible for
bombings carried out in previous years. Authorities identified, apprehended, and
successfully prosecuted many of those involved in the August 2003 bombing of the
J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, which killed 12 persons, and the 2002 Bali bombings,
which killed 202 persons. Those trials were scheduled to start in early 2005. In total,
police investigators had arrested more than 130 JI-related suspects since 2002. By
year's end, courts in Denpasar, Bali; Palu, Central Sulawesi; Lamongan, East Java;
and Jakarta had convicted approximately 80 persons in connection with a series of
terror attacks since 2001. Following the 2002 bombings in Makassar, South
Sulawesi, the Makassar District Court convicted 18 suspects and acquitted another.
In October, police captured Agung Abdul Hamid, the suspected mastermind behind
the Makassar bombings and the January 10 South Sulawesi bombing.
Police and soldiers clashed on a number of occasions during the year. On March 22,
more than 100 TNI soldiers from Battalion 143 in South Lampung attacked a police
post at Rajabasa bus terminal. The clash stemmed from a personal dispute, and
regional military commander Major General Syahrial BP Peliung later apologized to
police and promised to take disciplinary action against the soldiers involved. At the
end of the year, four privates were under investigation for the incident. On November
25, TNI members killed one police officer and seriously injured three others when they
attacked a police post in East Aceh over a dispute involving palm oil business
interests. Twenty-five TNI soldiers were arrested for their participation in the attack.
At schools, universities, police training centers, and other institutions,
upperclassmen, or superiors sometimes physically mistreated underclassmen or
subordinates, continuing a practice that dated back many years. During the year, a
number of such incidents resulted in death. On February 23, police in Bandung, West
Java, named 12 students of the State Sunan Gunung Djati Islamic Institute as
suspects in the death of fellow student Imam Nawawi, who died during an
extracurricular activity the previous week. Eight were accused of beating Nawawi to
death. Police authorities reportedly took no further action regarding the September
2003 deaths of five recruits in Palu, Central Sulawesi, who were victims of hazing by
members of the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob). In September 2003, in Sumedang,
West Java, upperclassmen at the government-run Public Administration Institute
(STPDN) allegedly strangled sophomore Wahyu Hidayat. An STPDN student said
upperclassmen beat Wahyu to teach him a lesson in loyalty after he failed to appear
at a flag-raising ceremony on Independence Day. On April 15, 10 students were
convicted and sentenced to 7 to 10 months in jail in connection with the death.
Prosecutors had sought up to 5 years in prison for the defendants.
The Criminal Code makes it a crime punishable by up to 4 years in prison for any
official to use violence or force to elicit a confession; however, law enforcement
officials widely ignored such statutes in practice. Security forces continued to employ
torture and other forms of abuse. The Government made some efforts to hold
members of the security forces responsible for acts of torture. During the year, the
use of torture to obtain confessions from suspects was most apparent in Aceh.
Torture was sometimes used to obtain confessions, punish suspects, and seek
information that incriminated others in criminal activity. Security forces also allegedly
used torture to extort money from villagers. Reliable figures on the number of incidents
of torture that occurred during the year were difficult to obtain. Physical torture cases
included random beatings and acts involving hair, nails, teeth, and genitals. Heat,
suffocation, electricity, and suspension by the feet were also used. Psychological
torture cases reportedly included food and sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, and
forced witnessing or participation in acts of torture.
Rapes occurred in conflict zones. Human rights advocates blamed many of the rapes
on soldiers and police. Statistics were unavailable, but credible sources provided a
number of accounts that involved soldiers and police. Kontras reported that during the
year of martial law in Aceh, 47 women and 29 children were victims of violence,
including rape. The extent to which rape was a problem in Aceh was hard to assess,
due to social stigma, the lack of reporting, and access to the region. The Council of
the Central Information for Referendum Aceh (SIRA) reported nine cases of rape by
military personnel in Aceh. The NGO Aceh Sehabat confirmed a report that on July
24, three TNI soldiers raped a 16-year-old girl in Kampung Meureu Baro-Indrapuri over
a period of several months, leaving her pregnant. Family and friends reportedly knew
that the girl was being raped but did nothing to stop it due to fear for their safety.
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