Legal hitch holds up rights trial

Legal hitch holds up rights trial

The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua/Jakarta

The much-awaited ad hoc human rights trial is faced with another
stumbling block as the government has asked the Supreme Court to
delay indefinitely its first hearing pending the issuance of laws
on witness protection, and rehabilitation and compensation for
rights violation victims.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra told
The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the drafts of the two
government regulations had been submitted to President Megawati
Soekarnoputri but had not yet been signed.

State/Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo said, however, that he
was not aware that his office had already received the drafts of
the government regulations related to the long-delayed ad hoc
rights tribunal.

"I'll have to check first whether the drafts are already in my
office or not," Bambang told the Post on Wednesday.

Pressed by the international community, the Indonesian
government agreed in 2000 to bring to justice those responsible
for the bloody violence in East Timor in 1999, but did not set up
a rights tribunal until January 2002.

The trial was originally scheduled to start its hearings on
Jan. 15, 2002, but as of that date the President had yet to name
ad hoc judges as stipulated by Law No. 26/2000 on human rights
tribunals. While the names of the ad hoc judges were finally
revealed in mid-January, they were not sworn in until late
January, raising suspicions that the government was not serious
in prosecuting suspected human rights violators in East Timor.

Yusril denied allegations that the government was intervening
in the legal process in order to delay the country's first human
rights trial.

"It is not that the government is interfering in the legal
process, but rather that we are suggesting the delay because the
two regulations are needed to complement the legal structure for
trying human rights cases. And we would appreciate it very much
if the court listened to our suggestion (to delay the first
hearing)," Yusril said.

According to Yusril, the draft of the government regulation on
rehabilitation and compensation had been submitted to the
President's office in November of last year, while the one on
witness protection was submitted only last week.

When asked when the President would sign the two regulations,
Yusril said: "I don't know, but I think it will be in the near
future."

Asmara Nababan, secretary-general of the National Commission
on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), deplored on Wednesday the
government's slow response in equipping the human rights tribunal
with the two regulations.

Asmara said that the much-awaited human rights trials could
not start without such regulations.

"The regulation on witness protection is important to ensure
that the witnesses appear in the courtroom. The government is way
too late because it should have prepared the regulation soon
after the law on human rights tribunals was enacted in November
2000."

"As a consequence of the lack of these regulations, the rights
trial may again be delayed and that will worsen our image in
upholding human rights," Asmara told reporters on Wednesday.

Indonesia has come under heavy pressure from the international
community to try military and militia members suspected of
sponsoring and being involved in the violence before, during and
after the United Nations-organized referendum in East Timor in
1999, in which the East Timorese voted to break away from the
Unitary Republic of Indonesia.

The violence killed hundreds of independence supporters and
destroyed almost 80 percent of the former Portuguese colony's
infrastructure. The violence also forced nearly 200,000 East
Timorese to seek sanctuary in West Timor.

The Attorney General's Office has named 18 suspects, including
three army generals, one police general and several mid-ranking
officers, as being involved in the mayhem.

Last Feb. 21, the Attorney General's Office submitted to the
Central Jakarta Human Rights Court three files indicting seven of
the 18 suspects in the East Timor violence.

They were all charged with human rights violations, including
committing crimes against humanity and genocide, with the
punishments available to the court ranging from 10-years
imprisonment to the death penalty.

The ad hoc human rights tribunal's judges are to meet in
Jakarta on Thursday to set the date for the first sitting of the
tribunal.