RI should check fine print before pursuing demands for Sweden, UN

RI should check fine print before pursuing demands for Sweden, UN

Kornelius Purba, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta,
korpur@yahoo.com

The Swedish Embassy in Jakarta slapped the Indonesian Cabinet
in the face on Monday with its decision to close its doors
indefinitely, while the Cabinet was still busy threatening the
Swedish government for its reluctance to take legal action,
including extradition to Indonesia, against Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) leaders there. The leaders, including GAM's supreme leader
Hasan Tiro, came to Stockholm in 1979 as political refugees and
are now Swedish citizens.

In the meantime, the Cabinet also disclosed that it was
considering asking the United Nations to include GAM on its list
of terrorist groups. Can we convince the UN that GAM should be
put on the same list as al-Qaeda?

Citing threats against Swedish citizens and Swedish interests,
the Swedish Embassy in Jakarta announced on its webpage that "the
embassy will remain closed until further notice".

A Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Agence France
Presse, "We have no information on what kind of threat (was
received by the embassy)."

On the same day as the embassy closure, Indonesian Minister of
Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda announced that the government
would give Stockholm another chance to meet Jakarta's demand for
legal action against the GAM leaders. He said Jakarta would send
former minister of foreign affairs Ali Alatas to Stockholm to
provide the Swedish government with evidence of crimes committed
by the GAM leaders.

The government delayed its own May 31 deadline for Stockholm,
a clear sign that the Cabinet was not fully united in the
decision.

In a conversation with The Jakarta Post on Thursday, Swedish
envoy to Indonesia Harald Sandberg reiterated that there was not
yet proof that the GAM leaders had violated the laws of his
country.

Indonesia has the right to maintain the unitary state of
Indonesia, and there is no question about its authority to take
legal action against anyone who commits crimes that could
endanger that unity.

After declaring war against GAM on May 29, the government is
stepping up the campaign to punish Hasan Tiro and other GAM
leaders. Many officials here have warned that Sweden will face
severe consequences if it fails to act against the rebels.

However, it is difficult to understand why Minister Wirayuda
has never mentioned, at least in public, that it is futile to
press demands that Sweden take action because Indonesia has never
formally charged Hasan Tiro and the other leaders with any crime.

It is not enough to claim that we have evidence against the
GAM leaders without bringing them to court or at least charging
them. Even Soeharto, during his iron-fisted rule, brought his
enemies to court, although many verdicts were allegedly
fabricated to please him.

This attitude actually humiliates the government itself,
because it demonstrates the government's distrust of Indonesia's
own judicial system. The government apparently hopes that the
Swedish government will accept its arguments like a creed.

Minister Wirayuda also realizes that Indonesia does not have
an extradition treaty with Sweden.

Article 33:1 of the July 28, 1951 Convention on the Status of
Refugees rules that no contracting state shall expel or return
("refouler") a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers
of territories while his life or freedom would be threatened on
account of his race, religion, nationality, membership in a
particular social group or political opinions.

Stockholm can reject Jakarta's demands based on this
convention, because the initial status of the rebels leaders was
that of political refugees.

To counter this argument, Indonesia can cite Article 33:1,
which states that "the benefit of the present provision may not,
however, be claimed by a refugee whom there are reasonable
grounds for regarding as a danger to the security of the country
in which he is, or who, having been convicted by a final judgment
of a particularly serious crime, constitutes a danger to the
community of that country". This, however, only works after
bringing the rebels to court.

There is a highly nationalistic emotion running through
Indonesian society. People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien
Rais boasted that he was ready to abandon his official Swedish
Volvo limousine. Other ministers may follow him for different
reasons, for example they are ready to trade in their cars for
something new. And don't forget that U.S. Ford Motor bought Volvo
in 1999.

For the Swedish government, the closure of its small embassy
will not have an immediate impact, as Ambassador Sanberg himself
will soon leave Jakarta after serving in his post for about five
years. His replacement is unlikely to arrive here immediately,
because the House of Representatives will surely prolong the
process of approving the new ambassador.

And what about the plan to put GAM on UN's terrorist list?
Whether we realize it or not, it is the government itself which
is in the process of "internationalizing" the Aceh issue. The
rest of the world seems unconvinced that GAM should be
internationally blacklisted while, for instance, the group's
leaders have not been officially charged with any crimes here. If
the tactic to have the UN place GAM on its terrorist list fails,
that means the government itself has promoted GAM to the highest
international level, the UN.