Anti-terrorism bill fails to impress legislators
Anti-terrorism bill fails to impress legislators
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Legislators rejected on Thursday some articles in the
government-sponsored antiterrorism bill which, it was widely
feared, would justify human rights abuses.
They said they would call for a revision of those articles as
soon as the bill was submitted to the House of Representatives
(DPR) for deliberation.
"The articles will have to be revised," said Burhan Djabir
Magenda, a member of House Commission I for defense and security
affairs.
Fellow legislator Chozin Chumaidy added, "We will scrap any
articles that are not in conformity with human rights values," in
a telephone interview with The Jakarta Post.
The legislators were commenting on the antiterrorism bill,
which is currently being drafted by the justice and human rights
ministry. The bill will be presented to the House for
deliberation next year.
A controversial article in the bill stipulates that a
suspected terrorist does not have the right to be represented by
a lawyer, to refuse interrogation, to be freed on bail or to
establish contact with any other person, including relatives.
The team is working on a second draft, which would require
differentiation in the treatment between local and foreign
terrorist suspects. Indonesians would be prosecuted in accordance
with Criminal Code procedures and foreigners under the strict
antiterrorist law.
Head of the law-drafting team Romli Atmasasmita has
acknowledged the team was aware that the article infringed basic
rights but was necessary to deter terrorism.
The team wished to protect the basic rights of potential
victims of terrorism in preference to the rights of terrorists
themselves.
Burhan said, however, that a suspected terrorist still needed
advice from a lawyer to ensure that his rights were being
respected.
He emphasized that application of the law should be the same
for anyone, as with any other law.
Critics say that the bill was reminiscent of the now-defunct
law No. 23/1959 on subversion. In 1999, the government prepared a
bill that dealt with states of emergency. The bill, considered
just as repressive and passed into law by the House, was
suspended due to public pressure.
Among the articles in that bill was the authority granted to
the military in a state of emergency to ban public access to
communications and information media for the sake of national
unity.