Questioning impunity in human rights abuses

Questioning impunity in human rights abuses

Imanuddin, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's legal supremacy is at stake following the
defiance by the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police
on behalf of the military and police officers allegedly
implicated in the 1998 and 1999 Trisakti, Semanggi I and Semanggi
II shooting incidents, to a summons from the human rights
commission.

The latest no-shows were three police generals -- former
National Police chief Gen. (ret) Dibyo Widodo, his successor Gen.
(ret) Roesmanhadi and former Jakarta Police chief Comr. Gen.
Nugroho Djajoesman -- who did not show up for the second summons
issued by the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations
(KPP HAM) on Thursday.

A previous rejection occurred on Jan. 31 when all four of the
top officers scheduled to be questioned failed to appear. They
were former armed forces chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto, and the three
police generals.

The officers' rejection of the summons was criticized by the
Secretary General of the National Commission on Human Rights
(Komnas HAM) Asmara Nababan, who accused the officers of a lack
of understanding on whether or not the legislature (DPR) can
issue a legal recommendation on the matter.

Asmara said the House's conclusion that they did not violate
human rights, issued last year, was not a legal decision and
therefore KPP HAM may legally embark on a fresh round of
investigations.

Meanwhile, chairman of the inquiry commission Albert Hasibuan
said the inquiry should go ahead for the sake of legal certainty.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, however, has
defended the military's stance in rejecting the very existence of
the inquiry, saying that the TNI would not turn its personnel
over for questioning as the House had made the decision not to
categorize the three incidents as gross human rights violations.

Law No. 26/2000 on the human rights courts entitles the House
to recommend which violations should be brought before the rights
tribunal.

Endriartono also asked the commission to respect the decision
of the House because "it is a decision arrived at between the
House and the government".

Similarly, the TNI leadership said on Jan. 7 that a KPP HAM
investigation was irrelevant and they saw no need to comply,
since the House had already conducted their investigation
concluding that there were no gross human rights violations in
the shooting incidents.

Meanwhile, Wiranto had defended the military, saying that the
TNI did not intend to violate human rights as "they were only
trying to guard the country from more massive riots, as well as
to secure the national agenda."

The former coordinating minister for political and security
affairs also reminded all national leaders that their current
positions were secured because of the military's action and
sacrifice during the incidents.

The 11-member KPP HAM Semanggi-Trisakti inquiry was
established by Komnas HAM on Aug. 27, 2001.

The inquiry team is in charge of investigating the May 12,
1998 shooting of demonstrators at Trisakti University, West
Jakarta and similar incidents at the Semanggi flyover in South
Jakarta which claimed 13 lives in November 1998 and one in
September 1999.

Four students were killed in the Trisakti tragedy, which
triggered major riots in Jakarta and other cities across the
country, eventually developing into anti-Chinese rioting.

It led to the downfall of former president Soeharto on May 21
1998.

The first Semanggi incident took place in November 1998 when
hundreds of students staged a massive demonstration to oppose the
imposition of emergency laws giving the military greater powers
to quell unrest.

The second Semanggi case involved security personal shooting
at student demonstrators opposing then president B.J. Habibie's
presidential nomination in September 1999.

The Komnas HAM-established inquiry had directly summoned 19
Army and police officers to appear for questioning after its
letters to both the Army Headquarters and the National Police
Headquarters asking for permission to question them went
unheeded.

The investigation into the case could end in a stalemate as
both KPP HAM and the TNI/Police have based their arguments on
different laws. The KPP HAM based its rights to investigate the
case on the Law. No. 39/1999 on human rights, while the
TNI/Police on the Law. No. 26/2000.

In light of the deadlock in the legal aspects of the case,
many have suggested that the country's highest authorities take
the initiative to make the investigation proceed smoothly, within
existing laws and regulations.

Human rights lawyer Bambang Widjojanto suggested that the
Supreme Court should take the initiative to issue a legal opinion
on the matter, similar to the one that Chief Justice Bagir Manan
had issued a day before the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)
decided on July 23, 2001 to remove Abdurrahman Wahid from the
presidency.

At the time, Bagir issued a fatwa (legal opinion) that
"mediated" the arguments between the then government of
Abdurrahman and the MPR on the validity of holding the Special
Session to seek the president's accountability of his
government's performance. Bagir declared that the Special Session
was lawful.

Such an initiative could also be taken by the President as the
supreme commander of the Indonesian Military to instruct the
continuation of the investigation into the cases.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri had taken a significant
decision last year when her government renewed in August a
presidential decree on the establishment of ad hoc tribunals to
try those suspected of gross human rights abuses in the 1984
Tanjung Priok shooting incident in North Jakarta and the 1999
bloodshed in East Timor.

The new Presidential Decree No. 96/2001 clearly specifies each
of the crimes against humanity to be brought to court, namely the
human rights violations in the Tanjung Priok shooting in
September 1984, and in East Timor in April and September 1999.

Similar expectations now are that the President should make a
decision to issue a decree on the investigation into the 1998 and
1999 shooting incidents in the capital.

Only time will tell whether the Chief Justice and the
President will take the initiatives to help settle the matter and
uphold the law in the country. Or will impunity continue to rule?