Debate over decree on terrorism continues
Debate over decree on terrorism continues
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Legal experts criticized the government on Thursday for its
abrupt issuance of an emergency decree on terrorism, which is
expected to be announced today.
The criticisms focused on the fact that the decree fails to
refer to any of the international conventions on terrorism.
Fadjrul Falaakh of the National Law Commission and Rudy Satrio
of the University of Indonesia said that the many international
conventions on terrorism needed to be ratified to show the
government's seriousness in combating terrorism.
"International conventions are the best guidelines as their
articles, more or less, are sufficient to detect possible
terrorist attacks as well as guaranteeing human rights," he said.
Indonesia, so far, has ratified four of the existing 12
international conventions on terrorism. All four of those
conventions, which are related to aviation security, were
ratified before 1988. Unfortunately, no law has been issued to
implement them.
"We have yet to create a law (to implement the conventions).
But we are preparing it," said Abdul Gani Abdullah, director of
Law and Legislations at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
He added that the government was concentrating on the
emergency decree.
The emergency decree -- adopted from the draft of the
antiterrorism bill that has been sidelined for more than a year
by the House of Representatives --- is said to be consistent with
Resolution No. 1373 (2001) from the United Nation's Security
Council on terrorism.
The introduction to the decree says it was proposed to comply
with international conventions on terrorism.
Rudy, a criminal law lecturer, specifically warned that the
creation of a decree only based on the undeliberated draft of the
antiterrorism bill could lead to unfavorable consequences for the
country in the future.
"The government must learn from history," he said, referring
to the establishment of the Human Rights Law and Human Rights
Tribunal Law.
Indonesia completed the laws amid mounting international
pressure to prosecute human rights abusers in East Timor.
Unfortunately, the state lost in most cases as the ad hoc
tribunal court acquitted the defendants, who are mostly military
or police officials formerly posted in East Timor.
"Prosecutors were too inexperienced with human rights issues
to prove any indictments due to, among other things, weaknesses
in the laws, which were made in a rush. We certainly don't want a
similar thing to occur in the future. It's embarrassing," said
Rudy.
The emergency decree is aimed at accelerating the
establishment of a legal instrument to combat terrorism in the
wake of the recent deadly bombing in Bali, which killed at least
184 people and injured hundreds of others.
The decree would enable law enforcers to take preventive
actions, something that is prohibited by the Criminal Code
Procedure here which requires law enforcers to produce hard
evidence before arresting a suspect.
According to the decree, law enforcers could arrest suspected
terrorists based only on intelligence reports which have been
approved by a district court through a closed hearing.
Rights activists have widely objected to the planned issuance
of the decree, fearing a possible abuse of power as had happened
with the antisubversion law under Soeharto.
The antisubversion law, which stipulates preventive actions,
has been turned into a draconian law as it was used by the New
Order regime to oppress perceived political opponents.
Despite the criticism, the government's move to issue the
emergency decree on terrorism gained support from the House,
ironic considering that the House has been blamed for stalling
its passage.
The support was raised following a meeting between President
Megawati Soekarnoputri, accompanied by several Cabinet members,
and several legislators led by convicted corrupter and House
Speaker Akbar Tandjung on Thursday to discuss the decree and
other items.