Activists urge House to reject antiterrorism rules

Activists urge House to reject antiterrorism rules

Debbie A. Lubis and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

Activists urged the House of Representatives on Tuesday to
reject government regulations in lieu of laws on terrorism and
instead amend the Criminal Code in a bid to provide a stronger
legal basis to fight terrorism.

Speaking during a meeting with House Commission I on defense,
foreign, and political affairs, the activists said the country
did not need to apply the regulations because they were against
democracy and prone to human rights abuses.

"The government is seeking a shortcut to fight terrorism by
imposing the regulations. It will only last for a maximum six-
month period. Actually, what we need is just to add or change
some articles in the Criminal Code," Todung Mulya Lubis, a noted
lawyer and human rights activist, told The Jakarta Post after the
meeting.

Todung was accompanied by activists from the Commission for
Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Center for
Electoral Reform (Cetro), and the International NGO Forum on
Indonesian Democracy (Infid).

A week after the Bali blasts, which killed at least 191 people
on Oct. 12, the government issued Government Regulation No.
1/2002 and No. 2/2002 on fighting terrorism.

The government will submit the regulations to the House for
approval, as required by the Constitution. In addition, the
government also plans to submit the Antiterrorism Bill to the
House to replace the regulations.

Todung said the government should not waste its energy
submitting the Antiterrorism Bill because it could cooperate with
the House to ratify 12 international conventions on terrorism on
land, sea and air.

He said the government could supplement the conventions by
modifying or improving some articles in the Criminal Code to
support the government's fight against terrorism.

Todung said the regulations and the Antiterrorism Bill would
give the state license to conduct state terrorism to intimidate
and terrorize its citizens.

Munir of Kontras said the regulations should be rejected
because they allowed intelligence agents to infringe on peoples'
private lives by monitoring their phone calls, bank accounts and
mail for one year.

He said the regulations' retroactive principles were against
the 1945 Constitution and the 1949 Geneva Convention that said
the principle could be implemented in cases of crimes against
humanity but not terrorism.

Smita Notosusanto of Cetro said the articles in the
regulations were too open to interpretation.

"I'm afraid that the regulations will hamper the works of the
election monitoring body. Just think of who is profiting from
these regulations," she said.

Smita suspected some interest groups had tried to degrade the
quality of the 2004 election or were even attempting to cancel
them.

"They can end the election process in conflict areas such as
Aceh and Ambon on the grounds that they are trying to avoid
terrorism," she said.

Commission I legislator Ishak Latuconsina said the House would
consider their opinions and would discuss the regulations when
the government submitted them to the House.

Based on the fourth amendment to the 1945 Constitution, the
House has to approve or reject the regulations during the current
sitting.

Permadi, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle said that based on the Constitution, the regulations
were issued when the country was in the state of emergency while
in the regulations the government did not mention the emergency
situation.

Therefore, the House should reject them, he said.