The Jakarta Post
February 28, 2002
Legal hitch holds up rights trial
The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua/Jakarta
The much-awaited ad hoc human rights trial is faced with another stumbling
block as the government has asked the Supreme Court to delay indefinitely
its first hearing pending the issuance of laws on witness protection,
and
rehabilitation and compensation for rights violation victims.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra told The Jakarta
Post on Wednesday that the drafts of the two government regulations had
been submitted to President Megawati Soekarnoputri but had not yet been
signed.
State/Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo said, however, that he was not
aware
that his office had already received the drafts of the government
regulations related to the long-delayed ad hoc rights tribunal.
"I'll have to check first whether the drafts are already in my office
or
not," Bambang told the Post on Wednesday.
Pressed by the international community, the Indonesian government agreed
in
2000 to bring to justice those responsible for the bloody violence in
East
Timor in 1999, but did not set up a rights tribunal until January 2002.
The trial was originally scheduled to start its hearings on Jan. 15,
2002,
but as of that date the President had yet to name ad hoc judges as
stipulated by Law No. 26/2000 on human rights tribunals. While the names
of
the ad hoc judges were finally revealed in mid-January, they were not
sworn
in until late January, raising suspicions that the government was not
serious in prosecuting suspected human rights violators in East Timor.
Yusril denied allegations that the government was intervening in the
legal
process in order to delay the country's first human rights trial.
"It is not that the government is interfering in the legal process,
but
rather that we are suggesting the delay because the two regulations are
needed to complement the legal structure for trying human rights cases.
And
we would appreciate it very much if the court listened to our suggestion
(to delay the first hearing)," Yusril said.
According to Yusril, the draft of the government regulation on
rehabilitation and compensation had been submitted to the President's
office in November of last year, while the one on witness protection was
submitted only last week.
When asked when the President would sign the two regulations, Yusril
said:
"I don't know, but I think it will be in the near future."
Asmara Nababan, secretary-general of the National Commission on Human
Rights (Komnas HAM), deplored on Wednesday the government's slow response
in equipping the human rights tribunal with the two regulations.
Asmara said that the much-awaited human rights trials could not start
without such regulations.
"The regulation on witness protection is important to ensure that
the
witnesses appear in the courtroom. The government is way too late because
it should have prepared the regulation soon after the law on human rights
tribunals was enacted in November 2000."
"As a consequence of the lack of these regulations, the rights trial
may
again be delayed and that will worsen our image in upholding human rights,"
Asmara told reporters on Wednesday.
Indonesia has come under heavy pressure from the international community
to
try military and militia members suspected of sponsoring and being involved
in the violence before, during and after the United Nations-organized
referendum in East Timor in 1999, in which the East Timorese voted to
break
away from the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.
The violence killed hundreds of independence supporters and destroyed
almost 80 percent of the former Portuguese colony's infrastructure. The
violence also forced nearly 200,000 East Timorese to seek sanctuary in
West
Timor.
The Attorney General's Office has named 18 suspects, including three
army
generals, one police general and several mid-ranking officers, as being
involved in the mayhem.
Last Feb. 21, the Attorney General's Office submitted to the Central
Jakarta Human Rights Court three files indicting seven of the 18 suspects
in the East Timor violence.
They were all charged with human rights violations, including committing
crimes against humanity and genocide, with the punishments available to
the
court ranging from 10-years imprisonment to the death penalty.
The ad hoc human rights tribunal's judges are to meet in Jakarta on
Thursday to set the date for the first sitting of the tribunal.