Human rights seminar adopts 12 distinct recommendations

JAKARTA (JP): A national human rights workshop which closed here Thursday recommended that military personnel who perpetrated human rights abuses should be brought to civil court instead of court- martial to ensure impartiality.

It was one of 12 recommendations raised by some 150 participants. The three-day event, the fourth so far, was organized by Indonesia and the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission also marked the 50th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights.

Human rights activists say that it is almost impossible for military judges and prosecutors to act independently because they bow to their superiors' command.

The London-based Amnesty International said in September that independent bodies should be given power to investigate military personnel for alleged human rights violations.

It cited that the 11 members of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus), who were detained by the military police over the abductions of political activists, should be given the opportunity to be questioned by independent rights bodies.

On Thursday Military Police chief Maj. Gen. Djasri said here on Thursday the dossiers on 11 Kopassus members suspected of direct involvement in the kidnapping of activists are now in the hands of Babinkum (the Armed Forces' body in charge of legal affairs)," which would determine further legal measures, he said.

Another recommendation was an appeal to the government to ratify the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Member of the National Commission on Human Rights, Satjipto Rahardjo, said, reading a statement that they "should be prioritized in the 1998-2003 National Action Plan of Human Rights." Satjipto said that in completing "the reporting obligations" to the United Nations, the involvement of non- governmental organizations were needed to help present objective condition on the implementation of the covenants.

The Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was ratified in September, has come into effect since Nov. 26.

The first report would have to be conveyed one year after the Convention came into effect and the next would be every four year or at other times deemed necessary, according to the Convention.

Miriam Budiardjo, deputy chairman of the Commission, said Tuesday one main weakness following ratification of conventions here was the failure to report on them. She had said one constraint was the gathering of data.

The workshop also recommended that in the framework of nation and state-building, the interests of indigenous people should be protected and given attention.

President B.J. Habibie said on Tuesday the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination was not applicable if it threatened the unity and integrity of a sovereign nation. (byg)