Indonesia's rights record in Aceh, Papua worsened<\/p>\n
Agencies
\nLondon<\/p>\n
Indonesian authorities intensified repression of independence
\nmovements in Aceh and Papua last year with hundreds of cases of
\nkillings, torture and unlawful arrest, Amnesty International said
\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
The international rights group, in its annual report, said
\npolice and troops also destroyed houses and means of livelihood
\nas a form of collective punishment following attacks by
\nopposition groups on security forces.<\/p>\n
Amnesty said no one had been brought to justice for the
\nmassacre in August 2001 of 31 plantation workers and their
\nfamilies in Aceh, although evidence collected by local rights
\nmonitors suggested the army may have been to blame.<\/p>\n
Human rights defenders were increasingly targeted, mainly in
\nAceh and Papua.<\/p>\n
They were subject to execution, unlawful arrest and torture as
\nwell as threats and harassment by the police and military,
\nAmnesty said. The Free Aceh Movement, an armed separatist group,
\nwas also guilty of harassing rights monitors.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the country, Amnesty said excessive force by
\npolice and troops caused deaths or injuries to striking workers
\nand protesters and in areas of ethnic and religious conflict.<\/p>\n
\"Impunity continued: there were no credible investigations
\ninto allegations of human rights violations,\" it said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia this year set up a human right court to try cases of
\nattacks on independence supporters in East Timor in 1999. Pro-
\nJakarta militias, organized and armed in some cases by the
\nIndonesian Army, carried out the attacks.<\/p>\n
Amnesty criticized a presidential decree restricting the
\ncourt's jurisdiction to just two month in 1999 and said senior
\npolice and military officers who were named as suspects remained
\non active service.<\/p>\n
According to Amnesty, in general, human rights are facing a
\nstrong challenge from antiterrorism measures rushed through after
\nthe Sept. 11 attacks.<\/p>\n
\"The universality of human rights is facing the strongest
\nchallenge yet. Double standards and selectivity are becoming the
\nnorm,\" Amnesty Secretary-General Irene Khan said.<\/p>\n
Khan reserved special criticism for the United States and
\nBritain.<\/p>\n
Britain and the U.S. had used Sept. 11 as an excuse to \"ride
\nroughshod\" over human rights.<\/p>\n
Fears over national security and the drive for an
\ninternational coalition against terrorism, with the two countries
\nat the helm, had led to \"hypocrisy, selectivity and double
\nstandards\", Khan said.<\/p>\n
\"They have created a shadow criminal justice system that
\ndeliberately goes around the principles of human rights with
\ngreat secrecy and that is very dangerous,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Amnesty said there was sufficient leeway within the existing
\ncriminal justice systems in Britain and the U.S. to deal with any
\nsecurity threats, and new emergency legislation was unnecessary.<\/p>\n
In general, a number of governments had jumped on the \"anti-
\nterrorism\" bandwagon and seized the moment to step up repression,
\nundermine human rights protection and stifle political dissent
\nafter the attacks on New York and Washington.<\/p>\n
Measures rushed through by governments included indefinite
\ndetention without trial, special courts based on secret evidence
\nand cultural and religious restrictions, the report said.<\/p>\n
There was also \"a greater reluctance by governments to
\ncriticize others' domestic policies\".<\/p>\n
\"Security cannot and must not take precedence over human
\nrights. The biggest danger to human rights is when political and
\neconomic interests are allowed to drive the human rights agenda,\"
\nKhan said.<\/p>\n
In the report Amnesty detailed human rights violations in 152
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
It highlighted the \"escalation of old and festering situations
\nsuch as the Middle East, Afghanistan and Colombia\".<\/p>\n
The report documents extrajudicial executions in 47 countries,
\njudicial executions in 27 countries, \"disappearances\" in 35
\ncountries, torture and ill-treatment in 111 countries and the
\nholding of prisoners of conscience in at least 56 countries.<\/p>\n
Amnesty said the true figures were much higher.<\/p>\n
Racism had increased in a climate of suspicion in which
\nforeigners were portrayed as a source of terrorism, it said.<\/p>\n
In Israel and the occupied territories, unlawful killings,
\nboth by the Israel Defense Force and by Palestinian armed groups,
\ntorture of detainees and unfair trials continued unabated, it
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Refugees fleeing conflict and abuse had been refused entry
\ninto neighboring countries, and the rights of asylum-seekers had
\ncome under severe attack.<\/p>\n
Amnesty highlighted the treatment of detainees on the U.S.
\nbase at Guantanamo Bay and said this appeared \"to have prompted
\nsome governments to believe that the inhumane treatment of
\nprisoners is now acceptable\".<\/p>\n
The organization also urged a wide interpretation of rights to
\ntake in not only traditional civil and political rights, but also
\neconomic, social and cultural rights.<\/p>\n
\"As globalization spreads, bringing greater wealth to some and
\ndestitution and despair to others, human rights activists must
\npromote not just legal justice but also social justice,\" Khan
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"An ethical approach to globalization can mean nothing less
\nthan a rights-based approach to development,\" Khan said.<\/p>\n
The full report in English, French, Arabic and Spanish is
\npublished at http:\/\/www.news.amnesty.org.<\/p>",
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