Arrests of terrorist suspects prone to abuses, say activists
Yuli Tri Suwarni and Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Bandung/Jakarta
The crackdown on terrorism conducted by an elite police unit has resulted in numerous instances of rights violations as most of the arrests made were illegal, rights campaigners allege.
But the police insisted that the operation would continue, saying they are authorized to arrest and question anyone suspected of involvement in terrorism.
"It's just a matter of the legal procedures. The Antiterrorism Law allows us to detain suspects for seven days for questioning. But if we don't come up with any evidence, we let them go," the National Police's spokesman, Brig. Gen. Soenarko Danu Ardanto, said on Wednesday.
He denied allegations that the antiterror unit, Detachment 88, had violated human rights and legal procedures while making arrests.
"The police are doing their best to uphold the law and the public should trust us," he said.
National Commission on Human Rights chairman Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara urged the police to respect the basic human rights recognized by the Criminal Law Procedures Code, Human Rights Law and the Constitution when arresting, questioning and interrogating people suspected of involvement in acts of terrorism.
"We may be protected from terror but we don't want to come under another threat," Abdul Hakim told reporters after a seminar on the war on terror from the human rights perspective hosted by Padjadjaran University's School of Law.
In its latest report, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM), a human rights watchdog, revealed that over 200 people had been arrested by Detachment 88 since the Oct. 1 Bali blasts, which claimed 23 lives. Only four people have been arrested and charged as suspects, while four other terrorists on the wanted list are now dead, including Malaysian master bomb maker Azahari bin Husin.
ELSAM also revealed the detention of 64 civilians between April and June of this year in six provinces in connection with terrorism, with at least 10 of them arrested by means of what ELSAM described as "abduction". The rights group used this term as those apprehended were allegedly forced to sign their arrest warrants.
"Some families can't even meet their sons or husbands, or even find out where they are after they're arrested," Atnike Nova Sigiro of ELSAM told the seminar.
She added that the Antiterrorism Law (No. 15/2003) could not be used to justify arbitrary arrests or other human rights violations.
More problems awaited those who were released due to lack of evidence as in most cases the community was already convinced they were terrorists.
"We don't want the stigma against communists that prevailed in the past to recur. There are other ways to combat terrorism without inflicting that kind of stigma on people," she said.
She said that Indonesia had in 1998 ratified the UN Anti- Torture Convention, which protects the non-derogable rights of people.
Although the convention does not spell out any punishments for failure to comply with it, Indonesia would lose credibility on the world stage if it turned a blind eye to the violations, Atnike said.
"I suspect the Antiterror Law is being misused to oppress certain groups, ideas, movements and aspirations, such as peasant movements against the gathering of rights over natural resources into the hands of a few," she said.