Court decision sullies RI's reputation
Court decision sullies RI's reputation
SINGAPORE: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is shocked and outraged at the quality of Indonesian justice. Its anger is understandable. Three of its unarmed humanitarian aid workers in West Timor were stabbed, stoned to death and their bodies dragged into the street and set ablaze by pro-Jakarta militiamen last September.
Last week, an Indonesian court sentenced six East Timorese responsible for their deaths to prison terms of 10 to 20 months. Their crime: conspiring to foment violence, not murder. The killers, defiant and unrepentant, boasted that they were proud of their deed.
The UNHCR has condemned the court's decision as a mockery of justice and an insult to the memory of those who died. It is looking at the legal steps it can take to redress the miscarriage of justice. It must press on with its case. Sadly, the power struggle in post-Soeharto Indonesia has turned the country into a study in political intrigues and mob violence. President Abdurrahman Wahid is distracted and fighting for his political life.
There is little public faith in the judicial system. The sentences are an embarrassment, if not another severe blow, to the country's standing in the world community. If Indonesia aspires to be a democracy worthy of respect, it will have to do better than this.
If not, the sentences sully the country's reputation and it will be dismissed as a lawless place. Saving Indonesia now is not just a question of corporate restructuring and reforms to salvage an ailing economy. The International Monetary Fund points to the breakdown in law and order as yet another reason for it to freeze further disbursements from the US$5 billion (S$9.1 billion) loan package to Jakarta.
The United States is withholding military aid unless the Indonesian government prosecutes those responsible for the violence in East Timor. Other foreign donors will be slow to help if there is neither justice nor security for them. The brutal murders had forced the UNHCR to pull out of West Timor, even though there are 100,000 refugees languishing in camps controlled by the pro-Jakarta militias.
The light sentences strengthen the case of those who argue for an international war-crimes tribunal to prosecute the people who laid East Timor to waste after its independence vote in 1999. Alas, President Abdurrahman is powerless to see justice done. He has agreed to the creation of an ad hoc panel to try 22 senior Indonesian military and police officers and pro-Jakarta militiamen for gross human-rights abuses in East Timor.
If it comes to pass, they will be tried under Indonesian law. But there is concern that Jakarta is dragging its feet to bring them to court. Some of the suspects have been questioned but no one has been arrested. Nor have the militias been disbanded. Instead, notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres, one of those who led the rape of East Timor, is seen as a hero.
The truth is that in Indonesia, particularly in the armed forces, the pro-Jakarta East Timorese militias are treated as patriots who did what they did to safeguard the country's territorial integrity. This is a mistaken view, as the annexation of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in 1976 was never recognized by the United Nations.
It is evident that there is no political will in Jakarta to prosecute those involved in the carnage and destruction of East Timor. In the UNHCR case, the Indonesian prosecutor went for the lesser charge and sought a maximum of three years in jail for the killers. Indonesia will pay dearly for that mistake.
-- The Straits Times/Asia News Network