Yusril reassures international community on rights violators
Yusril reassures international community on rights violators
JAKARTA (JP): The government dismissed on Thursday
international concerns that perpetrators of human rights in the
past, particularly in East Timor, would walk free from
prosecution saying that past human rights violators would be
tried in an ad hoc tribunal.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yusril Ihza Mahendra said
the bill on the human rights tribunal, which is currently being
deliberated by the House of Representatives and is expected to be
passed before the end of September, stipulated that past human
rights violations be tried in an ad hoc tribunal.
"The bill deviates from the non-retroactive principle as it
stipulates that gross human rights violations which took place
before the bill is passed into law will be prosecuted in an ad
hoc tribunal," Yusril told a news conference after the Cabinet
meeting.
"So we have to differentiated between 'court', which is
permanent, and 'tribunal', which is only set up to try a specific
case," Yusril added.
Yusril said he made the statement because "there are so many
questions from the international community" with regard to the
government's seriousness in dealing with past rights abuses
following a constitutional amendment introducing a non-
retroactive principle.
The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) amended earlier this
month the 1945 Constitution to prevent an individual from being
prosecuted under laws that did not exist when a crime was
committed.
The amendment created an uproar among local and international
rights groups, fearing it would be used to prevent the
prosecution of military officers for human rights violations in
East Timor last year.
Yusril warned, however, against international pressure over
the East Timor trials.
"I have to remind the international community that we could
also demand the Dutch and the Japanese governments (compensate)
for (past) war crimes committed during the independence war and
their periods of occupation here," said Yusril.
He said that he had aired the warning during a meeting with
visiting members of the European parliament early Thursday.
He said they had asked him whether or not a recently amended
article in the Constitution would bar the government from trying
those held responsible for the violence in East Timor.
"I delivered this warning to members of the European
parliament earlier this morning: 'that the international
community, specifically the western community, should not
continue pushing us to implement the retroactive principle
because it can backfire,'" Yusril said.
He also said that an article in the same constitutional
amendment mentions that all citizens have to respect the limits
imposed by the laws, and as such the retroactive principle could
be applied to specific cases.
"Therefore, I would like to convey to the international
community, that there should not be any fear of the amended
Article 28 of the Constitution," he said adding that the
principle of lex specialis derogate lex generalis, in which
specific regulations can overrule general regulations, would be
applied.
Earlier in the day, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said
that suspects in the East Timor violence would be named on Friday
afternoon.
"We are trying to name some of the suspects either this
afternoon or tomorrow," Marzuki told reporters after attending a
Cabinet meeting.
Marzuki said earlier that the amendment had caused his office
to postpone naming the suspects in order to prepare a stronger
legal argument.
But the Attorney General's Office is clearly behind schedule
after claiming in February that a trial could be held in three
months. (byg/prb)