Government gears up for Aceh rights trial

Government gears up for Aceh rights trial

JAKARTA (JP): The government is making final preparations for
the joint military-civilian trial of 24 Army soldiers implicated
in crimes against humanity in Aceh last year.

State Minister of Human Rights Affairs Hasballah M. Saad said
on Wednesday the government had established a joint panel of
judges for the trial and a security team from Aceh to guard
witnesses and defendants during court sessions.

"The opening of the trial depends on the panel, but we hope it
will start prior to the Acehnese people's congress scheduled in
the middle of April," he said on the sidelines of a seminar
organized by the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) here.

According to him, the panel would consist of three civilian
judges from the Medan district court, two military judges from
the Jakarta Military Court and a reserve civilian judge from
Banda Aceh. He declined to identify the judges by name.

The trial of Army troops was originally scheduled to begin
last month. It was postponed as the defendants' dossiers had not
been completed.

The soldiers are accused of killing Acehnese ulema Tengku
Bantaqiah and his 22 followers. It will be the first of five
human rights violation cases to be brought to trial.

Most of the defendants, low-rank soldiers in the Army's
Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad), are based in the command's
Division I in Cilodong, Bogor, West Java.

Hasballah said that the Military Police had already completed
their dossiers. The documents were slated to be sent to the
Attorney General's Office later on Wednesday and to the
defendants on Thursday.

The Attorney General's Office is expected to submit the
dossiers to the Aceh Provincial Prosecutors Office as quickly as
possible, he said.

Separately, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono disclosed
that he was coordinating the deployment of a special team in
order to verify recent abuses of civilians by Mobile Brigade
Police troops in Aceh. The team will be comprised of
representatives of his ministry, Ministry of Home Affairs and the
Indonesian Military (TNI) headquarters.

"The responsibility of the verification team is to investigate
these incidents," he said before attending a Cabinet meeting at
the Bina Graha presidential office.

At least 12 people, including two police officers, have been
killed since the unprecedented meeting between acting State
Secretary Bondan Gunawan and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) military
commander Tengku Abdullah Syafi'ie last Thursday.

Despite the ongoing clashes between the security personnel and
GAM, TNI Chief Adm. Widodo A.S. said that he would not change his
nonrepressive approach in Aceh.

"The security apparatus has stopped repressive operations,"
Widodo said at a meeting on the military's civic mission on
Wednesday.

Congress

In a related development, President Abdurrahman Wahid was
urged to help create a conducive environment during next month's
Aceh People's Congress in Banda Aceh in order to enable
participants find constructive solutions in ending violence in
the rebellious province.

Speaking to journalists after meeting with the President,
Tengku Syech Samaun Risyad, the congress' committee chairman,
said Abdurrahman responded positively to his request for security
assurance during the congress.

"The congress committee expects that the President will help
us create good security conditions, at least before and during
the congress," Samaun said on Wednesday.

The six-day congress will start on April 22.

A preliminary forum to be held in Medan will precede the
congress at the end of this month. The President is scheduled to
close the Medan event, called the Aceh Community Congress.

Meanwhile, GAM spokesman Ismail Syahputra asserted that his
organization would not attend the two congresses in Banda Aceh
and Medan.

"If there is a talk, it must be an inter-states meeting
between the Aceh State and Indonesia with a third party as a
mediator, such as the United Nations (UN) or other countries like
the United States or Britain," he said on Wednesday.

Syafi'ie himself refused to comment on the congress, saying
only GAM supreme leader Hasan Tiro had the final say.

"I am an armed forces commander. If you want to arrange
negotiations or diplomatic efforts, please contact Wali Negara,"
Syafi'ie said, referring to Hasan, who lives in exile in Sweden.
(50/51/edt/prb/rms)