Human rights seminar adopts 12 distinct recommendations

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)