Govt adopts secrecy in prosecutor selection

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the public demands for a transparent screening process to pick prosecutors for the ad hoc human rights trials, the Attorney General's Office has opted to keep the names of the appointees secret until they are inducted on Friday.

The Attorney General's Office spokesman, Barman Zahir, confirmed on Monday that the office had named 26 prosecutors, two of them with military backgrounds, to prosecute crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999.

Barman said the selection had been kept from the public in a bid to avoid polemics.

"The prosecutors will be sworn in on Friday...no names will be revealed until that day," he said.

Barman insisted that it was not necessary to disclose the names as it would only evoke a public response to their credibility and impartiality.

"Only us, the insiders, know well whether they are credible or not," Barman claimed. "Moreover, is there any rule that obliges us to invite advice from the public?"

The appointees, some of whom are retired, will prosecute 12 cases of rights abuses that took place before and after the UN- sponsored East Timor popular consultation in August 1999.

For the same reason, Supreme Court Justice Benyamin Mangkoedilaga, who heads the team screening the judges for the ad hoc human rights tribunal, preferred to prevent the selection process from being open to public assessment.

Benyamin said that to let the public participate in the selection of the judges would only cause a delay in the whole process. The rights tribunal, the first in Indonesia's history, has come under extreme international scrutiny.

Human rights activists have long urged the government to make known to the public, the names of the candidates beforehand in a bid to allay fears of an engineered trial. Especially for a trial with such delicate issues and very high stakes.

None of the lines in Law No. 26/2000 on a Human Rights Tribunal stipulates the involvement of the public or the House of Representatives in the assessment of candidates for judges and prosecutors.

Article 23 of the Law states that the prosecution of gross violations against human rights is to be carried out by the Attorney General, who, consistent with his or her authority, can install prosecutors comprising government officers and/or the public for the ad hoc trial.

Line 4 of the Article specifically requires the prosecutors to be between 40 and 65 years of age, to have studied law and have experience as general prosecutors. They must also have some knowledge and concern about human rights issues.