Human rights violations

Human rights violations

Former Indonesian Army chief of staff Rudini was interviewed
by Radio Australia on Feb. 2, 2000. Asked to comment on the
recommendation by the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights
Violations (KPP-HAM) in East Timor, Rudini asked that supposing a
TNI (Indonesian Military) corporal hit a bus driver on the
street, should the TNI commander be accountable for the act?

I was truly disappointed by this naive and disproportionate
analogy coming from Rudini, whom I know to be an objective and
fair person.

Hardly any day passes without a member of the TNI or the
National Police (Polri) committing a crime such as stealing,
murder or drug trafficking. In cases like those, the TNI
commander and the chief of police are never asked to account for
those acts, are they?

However, what took place in East Timor was a crime against
humanity in which there is strong suspicion that the TNI
commander approved or at least knew of the atrocities. If he
wanted to, he could have prevented or stopped the brutalities.

In fact similar cases have repeatedly taken place in this
country, for example; Marsinah, Udin, July 27, 1996; the
abduction of activists, Trisakti, May 1998; (What about the
recommendations by the fact finding team?); and the Semanggi I
and II "incidents". All these cases have never been solved.

The designers and perpetrators of the atrocities in East Timor
may have forgotten that, different from the other cases, the East
Timor case was as if laid under a magnifying glass. The
international community could clearly see and hear all that
happened there. For us, the Indonesian people who long for
justice and truth, the case may be a lesson to avoid a recurrence
of such impunity and to enforce the supremacy of the law. The
recommendation by the investigation commission should be followed
up by a fair and open hearing at court, without any intervention.
It is also meant to prevent an international tribunal judging the
human rights violators.

But I have my doubts if the Supreme Court is included in the
process of appeal. To date, the Supreme Court has been the only
institution that has not been affected by the reform movement. It
is still the final fortress of all forms of evil collusion.

A. RAHMANTO

Jakarta