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.