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Amnesty criticises Indonesia on Aceh, Papua and Timor

JAKARTA, May 28 (Reuters) - Indonesia made some progress on reforms in 2002
but the human rights situation in Aceh and Papua was grave, and trials over
human rights violations in East Timor were unsatisfactory, Amnesty
International said on Wednesday.

The Indonesian section of the London-based rights watchdog's annual report
said that last year in Aceh province -- where the government launched a
military offensive this month against separatist rebels -- scores of
unlawful detentions by both the police and military were reported.

Amnesty said "torture and ill-treatment of detainees continued to be
routine" in 2002 in Aceh and prisoners ranged from suspected Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) rebels to political activists and human rights defenders.

But Amnesty also said GAM was "responsible for serious human rights abuses,
including kidnappings and unlawful killings."

The government and GAM have been fighting a simmering war for nearly three
decades that has left more than 10,000 dead in Indonesia's westernmost
province.

Indonesian authorities have generally rejected sweeping charges of human
rights abuses in Aceh and elsewhere in the country, and also say that in
the military offensive now underway they are taking extra care to avoid
transgressions.

Amnesty said that in Indonesia's other separatist hotspot, Papua at the
eastern end of the country: "Efforts to find a peaceful solution to
political and other grievances...continued to be undermined by human rights
violations by the security forces."

Noting that Indonesia had undertaken trials of 18 people in relation to
charges of crimes against humanity in East Timor, now independent but under
Indonesian rule from 1975 through 1999, the report said:

"AI (Amnesty International) expressed its concern that the prosecutors had
failed in their duty under international law to bring effective prosecutions."

Of the 18 individuals being tried, 12 have been acquitted and five
convicted. One trial has not yet reached the verdict stage.

On the plus side Amnesty said: "Reform progressed in some areas," praising
the introduction of direct presidential elections and the setting of a 2004
deadline "to end the much criticised system of reserved parliamentary seats
for the military and police."