`RI fails to tackle prime rights issues'

`RI fails to tackle prime rights issues'

Agence France-Presse, Jakarta

The Indonesian government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri has
restored some political stability but failed to address human
rights abuses by the military and endemic corruption, Human
Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday in its annual report.

HRW also said human rights campaigners faced increased
persecution especially in the rebellious provinces of Aceh and
Papua.

"Despite restoring some political stability to Indonesia
during its year and a half in office, the administration of
President Megawati Soekarnoputri failed to deal with several
major human rights challenges," the group said.

"These included continued violations of international human
rights law by the country's military forces, pervasive
corruption, separatist conflict in Aceh and Papua, religious
violence in Maluku and Poso, and attacks on human rights
defenders," it said.

The government made only half-hearted attempts to hold the
military accountable for human rights abuses in East Timor in
1999, the rights watchdog said.

So far only one army officer and two East Timorese civilians
have been sentenced to jail while 10 members of the Indonesian
security forces were acquitted by the court over the army-backed
militia bloodshed before and after the territory broke away from
Indonesia.

A civilian has also been acquitted.

"Most significantly, the prosecutors failed to reveal in court
the role of the military and Indonesian officials in organizing
and arming militia groups and in orchestrating the violence," the
report said.

"The prosecutors' indictments were weak. They charged
defendants with failure to act, rather than organizing and
perpetrating atrocities."

Human Rights Watch said Indonesian courts and prosecutors
showed little willingness to take on major corruption cases,
citing the overturning of a three-year jail term for Central Bank
governor Syahril Sabirin by the Supreme Court.

Sabirin was accused of misusing US$80 million of state funds
in what was dubbed the Baligate scandal.

In September parliamentary speaker Akbar Tandjung was
sentenced to three years in prison for misusing roughly $4
million in state funds but he has continued to hold his position
while appealing.

Human Rights Watch said rights activists in Aceh and Papua
faced increased violence and arrest.

It cited the sentencing of Aceh activist Faisal Saifuddin to
one year in prison in January on charges of "spreading hatred."
The charges were previously used by the autocratic Suharto
government against critics and activists before his resignation
in 1998.

"Indonesia continued to be a dangerous and difficult place for
human rights defenders," it said.

Violence has continued in Poso and Ambon, the scene of
fighting between Muslims and Christians, despite government-
sponsored peace pacts in December 2001 and February last year.