Tribunal urged for military rapists

Tribunal urged for military rapists

JAKARTA: Rights activists called on the government on Thursday
to set up an ad hoc tribunal to try security officers suspected
of raping women while carrying out their duties in conflict-torn
areas, arguing that the alleged crimes could spark widespread
public terror.

Coordinator of the National Commission for Missing Persons and
Victims of Violence (Kontras) Usman Hamid said security officers
who abused women should be brought before an ad hoc rights
tribunal because the violence was sometimes used as an
interrogation method.

He also said that superiors of soldiers were also responsible
for violations because, "they failed to control their troops."

"In many cases of violence against women, security officers
use sexual threats as a way of forcing the victims to give
information.

"They (sexual threats) are also used to cause terror among
locals in an effort to drive them to support the security
operation," Usman said, referring to widespread instances of rape
in the country's troubled province of Aceh during the previous
military operation, which lasted for 10 years from 1988 to 1998.

Recently, a court-martial in Aceh convicted three soldiers of
raping four women, with the heaviest sentence being just three
years and six months, compared with a possible 12-year maximum.

All three were also discharged from military service. --JP