(New York) Human Rights Watch today urged Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to issue a presidential decree establishing special human rights courts.
On March 21, Indonesia's parliament formally approved special courts to prosecute the 1999 crimes in East Timor, as well as cases stemming from a massacre by security forces of Muslim protesters in Tanjung Priok, the port area of Jakarta, in 1984. Under Indonesian law, establishment of the courts now awaits only action by the president.
"The parliament's action removes a huge obstacle to justice, but the real question is when we will see actual trials begin," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "Not only do we need the President to issue a decree, but we also need the Attorney-General to issue indictments and the Supreme Court to appoint judges for the new courts. Unless all of that happens quickly, skepticism about Indonesia's will to confront the military about human rights abuse is just going to grow deeper."
Indonesian justice groups have long demanded a tribunal for the crimes committed in East Timor after the independence referendum there on August 30, 1999. In January 2000, separate international and Indonesian commissions of inquiry concluded that systematic rights abuses had taken place, and that Indonesian military officials and the militia leaders they organized and trained were responsible for the crimes. The international inquiry team, set up at the request of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and under the auspices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for an international tribunal to be set up to try the crimes.
The international community ultimately did not push for immediate establishment of such a tribunal, deferring instead to Indonesia's assertion that it would see that justice be done in Indonesian courts. Indonesia's failure until now to take meaningful steps toward prosecution of the crimes has led to renewed calls for an international tribunal, a demand likely to be echoed in coming weeks at the annual meeting of the U.N. Commission for Human Rights in Geneva.
The Tanjung Priok incident, in which troops opened fire on Muslim protestors in 1984, has long been a symbol in Indonesia of the alleged second-class status and political powerlessness of Muslim groups. Although the overwhelming majority of Indonesia's citizens are Muslim and the country is today led by a moderate Muslim cleric, Muslim political forces were marginalized during the first two decades of Soeharto's rule. Since the ouster of Soeharto in May 1998, pressure has mounted for justice for the Tanjung Priok crimes.
* * A copy of the Human Rights Watch letter to President Wahid is below.
March 23, 2001
Via Facsimile
His Excellency Abdurrahman Wahid
President
Republic of Indonesia
Dear President Wahid:
We understand that the Indonesian parliament, Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, today approved the setting up of special human rights courts to prosecute human rights crimes committed in East Timor in 1999 and Tanjung Priok in 1984. This is a step that the international human rights community has long been awaiting. We urge that you immediately issue a presidential decree (Keppres), pursuant to Law 26/2000 on human rights courts, establishing the courts.
As many of our Indonesian colleagues have emphasized, establishing accountability for past abuses by security forces in Indonesia and East Timor and ending the cycle of impunity are essential to Indonesia's democratization process. The delay of over a year in coming up with indictments against some of the individuals named in the January 31, 2000 KPP-HAM report as perpetrators of the 1999 scorched earth campaign in East Timor has raised serious concerns about Indonesia's will to move forward with prosecutions. Your speedy issuance of the necessary decree may allay some of those concerns, but until indictments are issued and trials begin, skepticism on the part of both international and domestic advocates of reform is likely to remain high.
We also urge that, once the courts are established, you do all in your power to ensure that the courts have the resources they need to perform their duties professionally and that the judges appointed are truly independent. We also respectfully request that you take the lead in urging the People's Consultative Assembly to further amend the constitution to make it clear that the amendment passed last August banning retroactive application of laws does not apply to gross rights violations, such as those alleged in East Timor and Tanjung Priok. We agree fully with those Indonesian legal experts who have argued that such a new amendment is necessary to avert the possibility that the special courts could be rendered powerless on a legal technicality: the constitution should unambiguously state that the ban on retroactive application of the law is not violated by acts that constituted internationally recognized crimes at the time the acts were perpetrated.
Establishment of human rights courts for East Timor and Tanjung Priok is not the end of the road, but a necessary beginning. We urge that you seize this historic opportunity.
Sincerely,
Sidney Jones
Executive Director, Asia Division
Human Rights Watch
