Acquittal of senior officers condemned

Acquittal of senior officers condemned

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The acquittal of two senior police officers from all charges of
gross human rights violations in Abepura, Papua province, drew
public condemnation on Friday.

Earlier in the day, the Human Rights Tribunal in Makassar,
South Sulawesi, exonerated Sr. Comr. Daud Sihombing from charges
of committing serious human rights abuses in connection with a
2002 incident in Abepura, some 20 kilometers south of the Papua
capital, Jayapura.

The same court also acquitted another senior police officer on
Thursday, Brig. Gen. Johny Wainal Usman, who is currently the
National Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) chief. He was commander
of Papua Brimob at the time of the incident.

"This decision shows that the state continues to retain
impunity (for top security officers) after freeing almost all
defendants in human rights cases in East Timor and Tanjung Priok
(in North Jakarta)," said a joint statement from several human
rights groups.

No senior military or police officers were convicted of crimes
against humanity in East Timor in the violence that followed its
people voting for independence from Indonesia in 1999, and in
Tanjung Priok when soldiers fired shots at Muslim protesters in
1984.

"The acquittal shows that the state has failed to provide a
sense of justice to the victims of human rights violations," said
M. Arfiandi Fauzan from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
Association (PBHI) in the statement.

Signatories of the statement also included seasoned activists
of other human rights groups such as Kontras, Impartial and
Elsam.

The NGOs, grouped in the Coalition of Civil Society for the
Abepura Case, said the court verdicts in favor of the senior
police officers undermined the psychological stance of the
Papuans whose rights were abused.

The coalition urged the Attorney General's Office to appeal
against the verdicts to the Supreme Court and demanded the
Judiciary Commission investigate the judges hearing the Abepura
case.

"The state should invite special judiciary rapporteurs to
assess the process of human rights trials in Indonesia," the
statement added, calling on the government to compensate the
Abepura victims and rehabilitate them.

The coalition also questioned the lengthy trials for the
senior police officers, as well as their venue, which it said
should have been held in Papua instead of Makassar.

The NGOs also slammed the authorities for not keeping the
suspects in custody for the duration of the trials, saying that
it was even more strange that they were promoted during their
trials.

More over, the coalition said it intended to take the case to
an international human rights tribunal.

Hasbi, who chairs the Makassar Legal Aid Institute (LBH
Makassar), also condemned the verdicts, pointing to flaws in the
trial and investigation, including the failure to reconstruct the
incident.

The court, he said, failed to take into account Law No.
26/2000 on human rights violations, particularly regarding the
line of command within the police force.

Instead, he added, the panel of judges adopted Article 340 of
the Criminal Code on premeditated murder.

"It was a crime against humanity and gross human rights
violation, not a regular crime," Hasbi said.

The Abepura incident took place in 2000, after 30 residents
armed with sharp weapons attacked and set fire to the Abepura
Police station. A policeman was killed and three others were
wounded in the attack.

In a separate attack on the Irian Jaya autonomy office in
Abepura, a security officer was killed.

In a retaliatory move, Abepura Police officers, assisted by
Jayapura Mobile Brigade personnel, began hunting down the
attackers.

During the ensuing raids, police arrested and reportedly
assaulted and physically abused at least 99 people, who they
claimed were suspects in the police station attack. Three people
were reportedly killed in the raids.

Commenting on the court ruling, the National Solidarity for
Papua said that the rest of the country should not be surprised
if Papuans wanted their independence.

"The court verdicts on the Abepura case hurt the victims and
their families, as well as other Papuans in general. The
decisions showed once again that Indonesia is a safe haven for
human rights violators," it said in a press release.