YLBHI gives thumbs down on rights record

YLBHI gives thumbs down on rights record

JAKARTA (JP): Despite a few bright points, the Foundation of
the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) gave Indonesia's
overall performance in upholding human rights this year the
thumbs down yesterday.

The foundation, in a statement marking tomorrow's
international human rights day, highlighted torture and cruelty,
and repeated denial of people's rights of association and
expression, as marring Indonesia's record throughout 1995.

"Various forms of torture and inhuman and cruelty treatments
outside the judiciary system continued to take place, although
such human rights violations have now become easily detected by
the public, and the government has taken corrective legal and
administrative steps," the statement read.

The foundation pointed to the killing of villagers in Liquisa,
East Timor and Timika, Irian Jaya, to illustrate its point. In
both cases, the government and the National Commission on Human
Rights took steps to remedy the situation.

The foundation noted that the security apparatus was still
insisting that those incidents occurred during its operations to
wipe out "security disturbance groups", or GPK, the term usually
used by the military to describe armed separatist movements.

The military saw these incidents as resulting from procedural
errors, not from errors in policy or substance. "The GPK stigma
gave justification to summary executions and other forms of
violence in these incidents," the foundation stated.

The foundation stated that people's right to associate was
still being trampled by the authorities, particularly the police,
using various legal instruments that empowered them to take
preventive, restrictive and repressive measures.

As examples, it cited the bans against the Indonesian
Democratic Party to hold its meetings and against the Indonesian
Prosperous Labor Union in North Sumatra.

People's right to express their opinion has been the target of
the state's "repressive" measures during the year, they stated.

It pointed to the prosecutions against three members of the
Alliance of Independent Journalists, Ahmad Taufik, Eko Maryadi
and Danang, Pijar Foundation activist Triagus, SBSI's leader
Mochtar Pakpahan, soothsayer Permadi Satrio Wiwoho and politician
Sri Bintang Pamungkas.

There were also restrictions imposed through the allegations
of threats from "new forms of communism", "new leftist",
"formless organizations" and others that were thrown in by the
authorities.

On the political front, the foundation noted with concern a
political system that allowed for the withdrawal of vocal
politicians like Bambang Warih Koesoemo and Sri Bintang
Pamungkas.

The brighter points of the year occurred in the judiciary.

The foundation noted the Supreme Court's acquittal of the
people convicted for the murder of labor activist Marsinah, and
the Jakarta district court's ruling in favor of the foundation in
its lawsuit against the police for banning one of its seminar as
examples of where the judiciary has shown to retain some
independence.

The state administrative courts have also at times, though not
always, showed their courage to go against the government, as
exemplified in their rulings for the Tempo magazine, which was
suing the government for closing it down, and for scholar Arief
Budiman, who was suing the authorities for dismissing him from
the Christian Satyawacana University in Salatiga.

In conclusion, the foundation urged the government to quickly
ratify international conventions on human rights and use human
rights as its sociopolitical parameters in running the
administration and implementing policies. (01)