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