Rights groups to ask for UN intervention in E. Timor trial
Rights groups to ask for UN intervention in E. Timor trial
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will use
the occasion of the annual meeting of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva next month to press
for international intervention in the ongoing East Timor human
rights trials.
The coalition said on Friday the demand was aimed at
preventing the human rights trials on the East Timor massacre
from setting the norm for rights tribunals in the country.
"We will ask the upcoming UNCHR assembly to urge the
international society through the UN Secretary-General to request
the Security Council to evaluate and assess the rights tribunal
on East Timor," said Ikravany Hilman, spokesperson for the
coalition.
The coalition expressed its disappointment with the way the ad
hoc trial proceeded. Due to the lack of key witnesses, the human
rights court has acquitted 11 defendants and in four cases has
handed down minimum or light sentences, which have never been
executed pending appeals.
The annual meeting will take place from March 17 to April 25.
"Indonesia has practiced impunity in the ad hoc rights
tribunal. The trial is only a scam to protect those individuals
who have committed gross human rights violations in East Timor,
because the tribunal is neither independent nor impartial and has
failed to adopt the international standard," he said.
The coalition, therefore, would urge the international
community to declare rights violators in the East Timor cases as
hostis humani genesis, or "the enemy of mankind", he said.
"As the enemy of mankind, violators can be arrested by
government authorities outside Indonesia, who would consider them
to be a common enemy," he said.
Rights activists have been campaigning for more human rights
tribunals for the Tanjung Priok massacre of Muslim protesters by
the military in 1984, the Trisakti and Semanggi shootings of
students by police and military during the riots of 1998, and the
Abepura killings of activists by the military in then-Irian Jaya,
in 1999.
"But because of the case of East Timor, there has been growing
concerns that other rights trials will also be a farce," Ikra
said.
However, the coalition shelved the idea to set up an
international criminal tribunal, as in the cases of the former
leaders of Yugoslavia and Rwanda, because it would be expensive
and the trials would take a long time, he said.
"We will accept the current rights tribunal with closer
monitoring from both local and international parties," he said.
The coalition also called upon the Indonesian government to
invite special rapporteurs on torture, who would monitor the
protection of human rights in the country.
The coalition consists of dozens of NGOs on human rights, such
as the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), the
Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), the Commission for Missing Persons
and Victims of Violence (Kontras), and the Indonesian Human
Rights Watch (Imparsial).