Weak indictments blamed for not guilty verdicts

M. Taufiqurrahman and Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Weak indictments by prosecutors because of alleged pressure from the Military were blamed on Thursday for acquittals of Army generals from charges of gross human rights abuses in the 1999 East Timor violence and the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre.

Analysts said these acquittals were a strong indication that the Indonesian Military (TNI) remained powerful in the new democracy despite its claims it had quit politics.

Hendardi, the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) executive director, said the prosecutors at an ad hoc human rights tribunal shared the blame with judges for the generals' releases as the judges had to hand down verdicts based on poor indictments.

He pointed out the weak indictments were linked to the Military's strong influence in the country's judiciary system.

"The acquittals are merely the pinnacle of the Military's interference in the judiciary. Somehow, they manage to play an influential role in (creating) flawed indictments from the Attorney General's Office," Hendardi told The Jakarta Post.

On Thursday, the Army's Kopassus elite force commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan was acquitted by an ad hoc human rights court of all charges for his role in the 1984 massacre in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

On Tuesday, the same court proclaimed former Jakarta Military Police commander Maj. Gen. (ret.) Pranowo, not guilty for failing to stop his troops from torturing protesters detained after the Tanjung Priok incident.

The court in both cases ruled that the evidence could not prove the charges of gross human rights violations. Victims who had testified to being tortured had withdrawn testimonies, and the prosecution had quoted a number of them saying that the physical effect of the torture was not too severe, as their spines were not broken.

Last month, the Supreme Court acquitted Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri and three other officers of gross human rights abuses linked to atrocities that followed the separation of East Timor from Indonesia in 1999.

A non government organization, the Institution for Study and Advocacy (Elsam), has attributed what it says is the weak indictment in the East Timor cases to the fact that prosecutors failed to relate the incidents between April to September 1999 "without relating them to previous happenings," which is crucial to build a case of widespread and/or systematic rights abuses.

Political analyst Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia said the acquittals of the generals indicated the TNI was on its way back to the center stage of politics.

The Military was "riding a wind" that would blow even stronger should retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono be elected president in the Sept. 20 election, he said.

Separately on Thursday, Attorney General's Office spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman said prosecutors were not to blame for the acquittals of generals.

He said his office had tried its best to indict all human rights defendants, including military officers.

"Prosecutors in the trials of generals have presented strong evidence, but unfortunately the judges had their own interpretations of the evidence when making their decisions," Kemas said.

He said the sentencing demands for between five and 10 years jail for the charged generals showed prosecutors were serious in taking human rights abuses to court.