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Statement on Human Rights Day 10 December 2007

TAPOL - December 10, 2007

Earlier this year, Indonesia succeeded in extending its membership of the UN Human Rights Council for a three-year term. The Indonesian Government must certainly be hoping that membership of the Council will erase from the public memory the appalling human rights situation in Indonesia during the 33-year Suharto dictatorship that ended in May 1998.

But have things changed all that much? Up to a point, they have. In 1999, a human rights law was enacted which states that the "Republic of Indonesia acknowledges and upholds human rights and freedoms as being an inseparable part of human dignity which must be protected, respected and upheld in order to promote dignity and welfare as well as capacity and justice".

This was followed a year later by the enactment of a law establishing a human rights court. Moreover, Indonesia has since ratified a number of international human rights covenants. All these important decisions mean that the country has set itself standards which it is duty-bound to keep.

However, enacting laws and ratifying international covenants mean virtually nothing unless they are reflected in the behaviour and attitude of government officials and the non-discriminatory treatment of all citizens in every part of the country and unless those responsible for past and present gross and systematic violations of basic human rights are brought to justice, putting an end to the scourge of impunity.

For more than ten months, the Solidarity Network for Families of Victims (JSKK) has been holding weekly demonstrations in front of the presidential palace calling on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to thoroughly investigate past human rights abuses. The demonstrators include the victims or families of the victims of past violations, the 1965-1966 bloodbath, the Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi II tragedies in May 1998, the abduction and disappearance of student activists in 1997 and 1998, the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre, the assault on the PDI party headquarters on 27 July 1996 and the murder of human rights activist Munir on 7 September 2004. Up to the beginning of November, they had made thirteen written requests to meet President Yudhoyono but had not received any reply.

Usman Hamid of Kontras, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, said at the demonstration on 2 November: "The key to the problem is the big parties in the House of Representatives that have the authority to establish an Ad Hoc Human Rights Court. Up until now however, the parties still do not consider (these) cases as gross human rights violations."
 Hoping that the President would bring pressure to bear on the party leaders to solve the impasse, Hamid said: "Have pity on the victims and families of victims who have suffered for so long. The process of reform has been going on for nine years but the government has yet to pay any heed to the victims of human rights abuses."

When the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, visited Indonesia and was able to visit police lock-ups and prisons across the country, he discovered that torture in Indonesian detention centres is widespread.

"In some cases, while we were inspecting the facilities, torture was ongoing. People who were being interrogated had been severely beaten. This is a sign of how systematic torture is." Mr Nowak singled out police lock-ups in Jakarta, in Yogyakarta, Central Java and in Wamena in West Papua's Central Highlands, for abusive behaviour towards prisoners or suspects.

He said detainees in these places were afraid to talk to the team of investigators and that, despite denials from police and prison officials, the UN doctor accompanying Mr Nowak found that inmates bore serious injuries such as scars and bruises, suggesting that torture was routine.

Scientific evidence from police lock-ups across the country also suggested that shooting prisoners in the leg to extract confessions was common.

The attitude towards UN special rapporteurs has been patchy and in some cases very unsatisfactory. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders were allowed to visit Indonesia during the course of 2007 but a request from the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings to visit was rejected. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston said this was especially serious for members of the Human Rights Council who were supposed to have promised 'to cooperate fully with the Council' as part of being elected. Refusal to allow him to visit should be raised at the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council, he said, but none of these countries are ever really challenged for their failure'. According to the English-language Jakarta Post, 'many extrajudicial killings have remained unresolved. And to make matters worse, all the administrations since Suharto have lacked the political will or ability to seek out the truth surrounding these crimes – let alone bring any perpetrators to justice.' [30 October 2007]

Aceh

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between GAM, the Aceh Freedom Movement and the Indonesian government in August 2005 paved the way to a peace process and brought an end to 25 years of human rights violations during which thousands of Acehnese lost their lives. But there has been little progress on several human rights issues. Although the MoU stipulated that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Human Rights Court should be set up within a year, there has been no progress. Acehnese people have repeatedly called for those responsible for extra-judicial killings, forced disappearances, torture, rape and other forms of violence to be brought to justice but this will not happen until the human rights court provided for in the Law on Governance of Aceh is set up.

Although the vast majority of prisoners taken into custody during the military operations have been released, seven men who were convicted of criminal offences still remain in custody in Java. While awaiting a solution to these cases, the government should move them to prisons in Aceh to be near their families.

West Papua

It is in West Papua, which was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 on the basis of a controversial and seriously flawed Act of Free Choice, that the most serious human rights violations now occur.

In 2001, in a move to moderate resistance to West Papua's incorporation, a Special Autonomy Law was adopted. However, implementation has been far from satisfactory and it was heavily criticised in a statement by leaders of the Protestant and Catholic churches of West Papua on 3 May 2007. Far from resolving the territory's problems, living conditions of the Papuan people were still grim, they said. There were restrictions on movement and all activities needed a police permit. In March, the police refused to allow a peaceful demonstration to take place in Jayapura, the provincial capital. All criticisms are branded as 'separatist'.

Access to the territory is rarely permitted for foreign journalists or international human rights NGOs. When a member of the US Congress known to be sympathetic to the aspirations of the people of West Papua was finally allowed to visit West Papua in November this year, his movements were restricted by a heavy police presence. He was only able to meet local officials and had virtually no chance of meeting West Papuans and hearing about their grievances.

Military command units everywhere in the territory display posters declaring 'NKRI harga mati' ('The Unitary Republic of Indonesia, Nothing Less!). Earlier this year, military officers conducted indoctrination classes in all secondary schools on the theme 'Education to Defend the State'.

Indonesia has agreed to allow the Russian government to use the small island of Biak with a population of 100,000 as a launching site for satellites, without regard for possible catastrophes should a rocket fall to earth and explode near populated areas. The project went ahead without consulting local community leaders.

In violation of the Special Autonomy Law (OTSUS), the province of West Papua has been divided into two provinces. According to OTSUS, the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) set up under the Law should have been consulted on a matter of this nature but no consultations took place.

Peaceful flag-raising demonstrations to mark 1 December, the day on which Papuans first raised their Kejora (Morning Star) flag in 1962, are strictly forbidden. Two Papuans who unfurled the flag on that day in 2004 are now serving sentences of 15 and 10 years, having been found guilty of 'makar' (rebellion). When the flag was flown in Timika on 1 December this year, seven Papuans were arrested and may soon face similar charges.

On 18 October, a human rights lawyer, Iwanggin Sabar Olif, was arrested for forwarding an SMS message on his mobile to his brother and five friends with a warning about the danger of poisoning, following a series of unexplained deaths from drinking alcohol. This action led to his arrest by Detachment 88, the anti-terrorism unit, and his removal to Jakarta where he may be charged under the anti-terrorism law.

For years, there has been an influx of tens of thousands of people into West Papua from other parts of Indonesia as part of a government-sponsored transmigration programme as well as unlimited, spontaneous in-migration which has transformed the composition of the population. West Papuans are rapidly becoming a minority in their own homeland. They are unable to compete with the newcomers who control the economy and markets and hold many of the key administrative positions.

While the exploitation by British, US and Malaysian companies of West Papua's abundant natural resources – copper, gold, oil, gas and timber – provide huge revenues for the Indonesian state in royalties and taxes, the vast majority of Papuans continue to live in poverty.

However, eschewing any idea of taking up arms against Indonesia, Papuan churches and civil society organisations have for years called for dialogue with the Indonesian authorities with the aim of creating a Land of Peace in Papua.

When the dictatorial Suharto fell from power in May 1998, a spirit of reformasi swept the country but in the past decade, reform has become a distant dream and the country's record on human rights has been a bitter disappointment to Indonesian people everywhere.

TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign
111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Croydon CR7 8HW, UK.
tel +44 (0)20 8771 2904 fax +44 (0)20 8653 0322
tapol@gn.apc.org http://tapol.gn.apc.org

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