Experts still critical of antiterrorism legislation<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The antiterrorism bill needs to provide a clear definition of
\na terrorist act, valid information to arrest terrorists and fair
\ntreatment of suspected terrorists, experts said on Friday.<\/p>\n
The government must also prepare rulings as a guidance for
\nantiterrorism law and implement them not long after the
\nendorsement of the bill to meet public demands not accommodated
\nin the law, they said.<\/p>\n
Kusnanto Anggoro of the Center for Strategic and International
\nStudies (CSIS), legal expert Frans Hendra Winata and Rifqie Muna
\nof the Research Institute for Democracy and Peace (RiDEP) said a
\nterrorist act must be declared a politically motivated crime,
\notherwise the law would be toothless.<\/p>\n
The bill should also define terrorism so it could not be just
\ntagged on separatist groups like the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and
\nthe Papua Freedom Organization (OPM), Kusnanto said.<\/p>\n
The latest draft law defines terrorism as an intentional
\nillegal act that endangers people and their belongings or sparks
\nwidespread destruction, fear or death.<\/p>\n
But it stipulates terrorist acts are not political or
\npolitically motivated crimes. Antonius Sujata, a member of the
\nteam that drafted the proposed legislation, said it was defined
\nas such to ensure the extradition process could be undertaken.<\/p>\n
However, Kusnanto said extradition of suspected terrorists as
\npolitical criminals could be carried out by endorsing particular
\nagreements on terrorist issues with other countries.<\/p>\n
He suggested that the bill recognize intelligence reports as
\npreliminary evidence to arrest terrorist suspects, though
\nstressing the reports must be valid and accountable.<\/p>\n
\"Otherwise the article can be misused to just arrest anyone
\nwho is considered a danger to the government,\" he said, adding
\nthat so far there was no mechanism to test that intelligence
\nreports were not fake.<\/p>\n
Suspected terrorists must also have access to lawyers, which
\nis not obviously stated in the bill, Kusnanto said.<\/p>\n
There were other human rights violations in the bill such as
\nblocking and disclosing bank accounts of suspected terrorist
\nduring investigations, he said.<\/p>\n
Frans said he worried about the establishment of an ad hoc
\nunit to tackle terrorism.<\/p>\n
\"As the team includes military and its task has not yet been
\nclearly defined, it may emulate a superbody under previous
\nsubversion laws,\" he said.<\/p>\n
In the past, a military team was set up to handle subversion
\naccusations and had the power to arrest people for uncertain
\nreason for long periods.<\/p>\n
President Megawati Soekarnoputri instructed her ministers on
\nThursday to improve the bill before submitting it to the House of
\nRepresentatives, but it was not clear which articles she meant.<\/p>\n
Antonius speculated the bill must further elaborate on the
\ndefinition of terrorism and the establishment of the ad hoc unit.<\/p>\n
\"We need to ensure that the ad hoc unit works transparently
\nand does not become too powerful,\" he said.<\/p>",
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