Human rights body must win back public trust
Achmad Ali, Professor of Law, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, South Sulawesi
Polls in a number of media publications indicate that the majority of Indonesians support the military operation to crush the rebellious Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh. Ironically, some, including a number of human rights activists, have lashed out at this military operation and law enforcement against GAM in Aceh.
Many have lost sympathy for these activists, particularly those from the National Commission on Human Rights. As an independent institution, the commission should take a more proportional position in reacting to the military and law enforcement operations. That a number of people suspected as being GAM sympathizers were allowed to take shelter at the commission's representative office in Aceh showed that its members on the team monitoring the Aceh war were no longer being impartial.
The team was acting beyond its legal mandate. The commission is neither a Red Cross office, legal aid institute office nor an embassy; neither is it an extraterritorial institution. Even if the commission's Aceh representative office had provided "shelter" to someone, especially one suspected of being a GAM member, the security forces would have had the authority to arrest such people.
The "protection" given to people suspected of being GAM members by commission members has not only tainted the reputation of the individual(s) giving the permission for shelter, but the move has also become an embarrassment to the rights commission as an independent state institution.
Fortunately, the recent plenary meeting of the rights commission agreed to no longer treat the representative office of the commission in Aceh as a "shelter" or "refuge".
It is only natural that the commission's team in Aceh acted upon reports by people about human rights violations, allegedly perpetrated by members of the Indonesian Military/police. Still, the commission's team in Aceh must also be proactive in gathering data about human rights violations on the part of GAM.
The Indonesian Military/police have demonstrated their goodwill by holding a trial of their personnel, who were then found guilty of human rights violations. The problem is how the commission should have reacted to the burning of schools, damage to electricity facilities and human rights violations, allegedly carried out by GAM. The commission's team in Aceh should also make an issue of these matters and demand that the perpetrators be tried and sentenced appropriately.
Only if the rights body adopts this kind of balanced stance can it win back public trust: In legal parlance, action must be taken against whoever violates the law. Those who resist must be arrested. If they are dangerous, the only way left is to crush them. Once GAM members are captured, humanitarian law also applies to them. Everyone, including GAM members, is equal before the law.
Prof. Achmad Ali is also a member of the National Commission on Human Rights.