Govt told to ratify UN resolution on antiterrorism

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has no other choice but to ratify UN Security Council Resolution No. 1373/2001 on a variety of action to fight international terrorism, in order to effectively combat terrorism at home, a discussion concluded on Saturday.

"By ratifying the UN resolution, Indonesia will have a strong legal basis to combat terrorist activities here," senior lecturer at the Indonesian Christian University (UKI) Victor Silaen told a discussion titled, The United States, Indonesia, and international terrorist networks here.

The resolution, which emerged two weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. last year, is considered the most comprehensive as it requests every country to seek, punish and extradite terrorists.

It also encourages cooperation among countries to exchange information and freeze the funds of terrorists and their supporters.

It stipulates that all states shall prevent the movement of terrorist or terrorist groups by exercising effective border controls and controls on issuance of identity papers and travel documents, and through measures to prevent counterfeiting, forgery, or fraudulent use of identity papers and travel documents.

"Blocking and freezing terrorist funds is one of the main keys to suppressing terrorist activities," Victor said.

"But unfortunately our government is reluctant to ratify it, which indicates that the government has no political will to combat terrorists."

He also urged the police to improve their performance in fighting terrorists in the country, citing the police's failure to solve a series of bombings in the country.

The government is currently under international pressure to step up measures against international terrorism.

With pressure mounting, the government has arrested two suspected terrorists and deported one of them to the U.S., and pledged to submit the antiterrorism bill to the House of Representatives immediately.

The bill, however, has met with strong opposition from human rights activists due to human rights violations that could result, for example, from articles on intent to commit a terrorist act, which would carry a penalty of 15 years in jail, or on poor preliminary proof, or measures to disclose and freeze the bank accounts of suspected terrorists.

Besides ratifying the resolution, Victor said that the antiterrorism law would be crucial to deal with terrorism.

"But we must first clearly define what a terrorist act is," he said.

He proposed a definition of a terrorist act as illegal and underground activities that aimed at sparking widespread public panic and anxiety through destroying vital installations, public facilities and others.

"For example ... Osama bin Laden, or al-Qaeda concealed their organization from the general public, caused widespread fear and traumatized the world after the Sept. 11 attacks. That was a terrorist move," he said.

He also proposed that the bill distinguish between local and international terrorism, with clear distinctions and punishments.

"Thus, we could say, for example, the Aceh Freedom Movement (GAM) or the Free Papua Movement (OPM), if they committed terrorist acts, could be labeled as local terrorists," he said.

However, he quickly added a rider that GAM and OPM should not too easily be labeled as terrorists as their separatist movements were a result of years of injustice that local people considered they had suffered.