Activists questions human rights tribunal credibility

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta

Following the overturning on appeal of the convictions of four military and police officers originally convicted on charges of committing atrocities in East Timor, activists noted how the legal process "continues to condone impunity" for senior security officers.

Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, the former Udayana military commander in the one-time Indonesian territory, was the most senior of the four military and police officers whose convictions were thrown out by the ad hoc human rights appellate court on July 29, according to Koran Tempo daily on Friday.

Adam and three others -- Col. Noer Muis, Lt.Col. Sujarwo and Sr. Comr. Hulman Gultom -- had been charged over the killings, violence and destruction that erupted in Dili and other parts of East Timor following the September 1999 referendum, in which most East Timorese voted to secede from Indonesia.

The other officers had been serving in East Timor's capital at the time, respectively as the Dili military resort commander, its military district commander and its local police chief.

Adam had been sentenced to three years in jail by the ad hoc human rights tribunal, and, like all the others, was allowed to remain at liberty pending appeal.

"These decisions confirm the view that the tribunal is unfair, and it appears that this impunity will as a result be perpetuated in other human rights cases," a former member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Asmara Nababan, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Appeals from the human rights tribunal are heard in camera. One of the judges sitting on the bench that originally convicted Damiri, Binsar Goeltom, remarked to Reuters, "The question now arises as to why our decision was overturned."

Another human rights activist, Hendardi, said that the decision proved that the ad hoc tribunal was nothing but a sham orchestrated by the government "to avoid an international tribunal" and to keep on good terms with the military.

The Human Rights Ad Hoc Tribunals Law was passed in 2000 following international pressure on Indonesia to take action in respect of various alleged human rights abuses, including those in East Timor.

With the latest decision on appeal, out of 18 defendants, only two, who are civilians and of East Timorese origin, are serving jail terms; former East Timor governor Abilio Soares and pro- Jakarta militia leader Eurico Guterres.

The earlier acquittals drew criticism from the United States.

"It's been a very disappointing process in terms of rendering justice onto those who committed horrible atrocities in East Timor just a few years ago," the U.S. State Department had commented after the original acquittals had been handed down, as quoted by AFP.

The same ad-hoc tribunal is still to hear a number of other cases of alleged human rights violations involving military and police officers.

"It is very likely that the cases will end up the same way as the East Timor trials; the prosecutors should be more serious in making their cases," Asmara said.

Hendardi warned that the likelihood of the cases being brought before a special international human rights tribunal would increase if the courts continued to maintain "the culture of impunity" in human rights cases.