Striving to protect the witness amid calls for trials
Striving to protect the witness amid calls for trials
By Ati Nurbaiti
JAKARTA (JP): There is a lot of clamor nowadays to bring those
guilty of abusing power and violating human rights to trial --
those involved in abduction, arbitrary detention, corruption,
torture, rape and killings.
And the list keeps growing. From the 1993 murder of labor
activist Marsinah, the Banyuwangi "ninja" killings, the 1996
attack on the Indonesian Democratic Party headquarters in
Jakarta, the Bank Bali scandal, "provocateurs" of clashes in
various regions, and so on.
But who would come forth as a witness in such cases, when
one's child is followed home from school, when a caller threatens
your life, or if one must recall the details of a rape over and
over again?
Reports of the harassment of potential witnesses has led to
demands for witness protection.
Legal expert Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, who chairs the team
working on a witness protection bill, claims the draft has been
completed. The bill especially applies to the protection of
witnesses and victims in cases regarding corruption, rights
violations, drug abuse and violations by ruling parties.
Witnesses, Harkristuti said during a public debate on witness
protection last month, would be ensured of relocation rights,
rights to a new identity, and safety for themselves and their
families.
The talks were held by the National Commission on Violence
against Women, which invited among others experts experienced in
international tribunals.
Special attention was given to women victims who had told
their stories in an earlier workshop closed to the press.
The Commission's Secretary General, Kamala Chandrakirana, said
the legal approach only has a chance to work if sensitivity is
ensured in the victim's immediate community and in all the
different phases she has to pass through on the way to justice,
such as dealings with medical and police personnel.
While the grief and anger over a rape may be shared in the
family and in the community, one of the experts, Francoise
Ngendehayo, said "it is still a long way from that individual
actually coming forth as witness."
She is a gender consultant for the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda, which has heard the accounts of a few
hundred women survivors of the 1994 genocide.
Even a victim's husband might not encourage the woman to speak
up about sexual violence, said Ngendehayo, referring to the
stigma involved in such a crime.
Ngendehayo told The Jakarta Post, "what struck me is the
similarity between the experiences and accounts from Indonesia
and Rwanda." She had listened to stories from survivors and
victims of clashes in Aceh, East Timor and Irian Jaya.
"Although conflicts in Indonesia have not reached the extent
of those in Rwanda, they are just the same," she said, referring
to the reluctance of women in speaking up about their cases.
A 1996 report on Rwanda by the Human Rights Watch made the
statement, based on survivors' testimonies, that thousands of
women were victims of such crimes as individual rape, gang rape
and rape with sharpened sticks or gun barrels. The exact number
of women raped, it said "will never be known."
Numerous cases of sexual assault have been reported from
conflict areas here but the rare investigations into such cases
reflect the obstacles specific to these "gender-biased crimes."
Only one case of rape was on the investigation list of a
government sponsored team on Aceh.
An insight into the obstacles is provided in a Human Rights
Watch report entitled Shattered Lives: "Rwandan women who have
been raped or who have suffered sexual abuse generally do not
dare reveal their experiences publicly, fearing that they will be
rejected by their family and by the wider community and that they
will never be able to reintegrate or marry." A lot of victims
also fear revenge from attackers.
In Indonesia, the official team investigating the May 1998
riots verified 52 victims of rape, another 14 victims of rape
accompanied by violence, 10 victims of sexual attack
and four cases of sexual harassment.
From the aftermath of the riots up to the announcement of the
team's result in November 1998, the silence of the victims has
been reinforced by the outrage following activists' claims that
the number of victims was much higher, leading to accusations of
"lies that Muslims raped Chinese."
Debates over the number of rapes led to reports that one woman
among the claimed number of victims was not raped -- "but only
stripped in public."
A physician who had examined some of the victims dropped plans
to testify, saying his family was being threatened. Activists
called for the need to protect witnesses while their own families
were also targeted for harassment.
The police said they could not be everywhere to protect
witnesses all the time, and many of these witnesses reportedly
fled the country to seek safety.
Outcries against the harassment of potential witnesses was
subdued compared to the allegations of a conspiracy to discredit
Muslims. Until today we are still in the dark over the real
identity of the criminals.
Six years have passed since the civil strife in Rwanda which
killed some 800,000 people, but the chilling similarity to much
of the violence in Indonesia is yet to be fully understood.
Similarities are found not only in civilians hunting and
killing one another just because they belong to "the other" side,
but also in the pattern of victimization of women and the long
term effects this has had.
The Human Rights Watch said "rape ... is also used as a weapon
to terrorize and degrade a particular community and to achieve a
specific political end."
Time is short given the continuing violence. So parties
seeking justice for victims are pressed to understand the above
issues, while learning from whatever experience is available in
the obtaining and protection of witnesses.
Ngendehayo, who is from Burundi, described the complexities
involved in coaxing a witness to testify. One question that needs
to be asked, she said, is "does the witness have a house?"
If witnesses are to be protected, "how can they be safe on the
streets?" she said, referring to refugees fleeing attackers.
Ngendehayo said that involving family and community and local
nongovernment groups is vital in the process to bring forth a
witness. The potential witness must be accompanied by a family
member and another party from the community who understands the
local culture and language, she said.
Also, "I told the women that if they did not come forth, their
daughters could also experience the same crimes," she said.
However the witness, she added, must be prepared and made to
understand the impact of her coming forth, including the way the
family would be affected.
"The law must also be demystified," she said, to be made
comprehensible to the community and to potential witnesses.
A woman from Ambon told the workshop of the "constant fear of
meeting people" and of the depression in daily life, as the two-
year clashes continue.
Riyah (not her real name), from an unidentified region in
Aceh, said she has no idea where her husband is, or whether he is
still alive.
One night, she said, 20 men entered the back door of their
house, beat up her husband and disappeared with him. She has
sought information about him from the local and district military
headquarters, as well as the police chief, with no result.
Left with six children, she said she could not return to Aceh
and was always in fear, particularly at the sight of soldiers.
"We have no more money," she added.
These were among stories on "crimes by the state." But
executives of the national commission on women stress that what
is equally urgent is witness protection for victims of domestic
violence.
Ani (not her real name), said for years her husband not only
locked her up and beat her, but also did the same to the
children. The violence started, she said, when she discovered
that her husband was having an affair and would not agree to a
request for a divorce.
Throughout 1999, the Mitra Perempuan women's crisis center has
revealed, 60 percent of the 113 cases of abuse against women in
Jakarta took place inside the home.
Feminists point to the law as one source of continuing neglect
in the ongoing issue of domestic violence.
The marriage law, for instance, states that the man is the
head of the family. This, says sociologist Julia Suryakusuma,
perpetuates the waiving of domestic violence charges on the
grounds that such cases are "private" affairs.
"This law implies that the woman is the man's property," she
said.
Even as barriers against speaking out are being broken down,
abused women will surely remain silent as long as there is no
protection provided against spouses who have become as powerful
and as terrifying as other perpetrators of cruelty.
The writer is a journalist based in Jakarta.