Planned antiterror amendments slammed

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The government's intention of introducing draconian legislation to fight terrorism appears likely to face a long hard slog after politicians and human rights campaigners roundly criticized the proposal.

Golkar legislator Yuddy Chrisnandy warned the government against introducing legislation that could threaten human rights, particularly given the high number of dubious arrests and alleged mistreatment of suspects by the police in their investigations of terrorist attacks over the past few years.

Law enforcement agencies have also been criticized for making no efforts to restore the good names of those later released due to the lack evidence.

"We, the members of Commission I on political, defense and foreign affairs, recently approved the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. We want all legislation in this country to comply with the principles contained in the Covenant," Yuddy said.

He was commenting on the government's proposal to beef up the Antiterrorism Law in the wake of the recent bomb blasts in Bali.

"Once the government submits the draft amendments to the Antiterrorism Law, we will carefully examine them to ensure that their provisions do not contravene the Covenant," Yuddy said.

News of the planned amendments was disclosed by Ansja'ad Mbai, who heads the antiterror desk at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs. He acknowledged that the draft amendments could "compromise individual human rights so as to ensure the safety of the public at large."

Ansja'ad said that many countries had adopted similar tough legislation following the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11. 2001.

In Australia, the local antiterrorism legislation gives power to the attorney general to ban certain groups from pursuing their activities, and to abrogate certain rights of such groups' members while being questioned by security officers.

In the wake of the legislation, the Australian authorities asked the Indonesian government to ban Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) -- the Asian terrorist network believed to have been responsible for the series of terror attacks in Indonesian beginning in 2000.

Tough legislation has also been introduced in many other Western countries allowing the state to curtail individual freedoms in the light of the terrorist threat.

Noted rights activist Asmara Nababan had earlier urged lawmakers not to endorse the government's move to amend the Antiterrorism Law, arguing that the lack of a legal umbrella for investigators was not the main reason behind the country's inability to curb terrorism.

"The problem lies in a lack coordination between all of the intelligence services in this country as well as the poor showing of the police in dealing with extraordinary crimes.

"Therefore, we do not need a draconian law for this country," said Asmara, who is also a former secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).