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