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RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section
1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
The security forces continued to employ harsh measures against
rebels and civilians in separatist zones where most politically
motivated extrajudicial killings occurred. The security forces also
committed numerous extrajudicial
killings that were not politically motivated. The Government largely
failed to hold soldiers and police accountable for such killings and
other serious human rights abuses.
In Aceh, where separatist GAM rebels remained active, military and
police personnel committed many extrajudicial killings and used
excessive force against non-combatants as well as combatants; at
least 898 persons were killed during the year. This figure included
civilians, rebels, and security force members, with civilians
accounting for most of the fatalities. However, security forces and
rebels gave conflicting information on victims' identities, making
it difficult to determine the breakdown of civilian, rebel, and
security force deaths. Many of the killings appeared to be
executions. The Government and the GAM accused each other of killing
captured combatants, and there was evidence to support such claims.
Press reports undercounted the number of casualties, and some deaths
never appeared in the newspapers. Police rarely investigated
extrajudicial killings and almost never publicized such
investigations.
On June 7, on Kayee Ciret Mountain in Aceh, TNI soldiers shot and
killed two farmers and wounded five others in a raid on a hut in an
area suspected as a hideout for GAM rebels. The attack occurred at
dawn, while the farmers slept. On August 3, in the north Aceh
village of Kandang, six gunmen stormed into a number of houses and
shot and killed three local women. The GAM accused the Brimob of
carrying out the attack because relatives of the victims had links
to the GAM. The security forces rejected this allegation, but the
NGO Central Information for Aceh Referendum (SIRA) reported that a
group of Brimob visited the village on the night in question.
Village witnesses identified the gunmen as police and recognized the
group's leader, Syarifuddin, a sergeant feared for his alleged
brutality. On December 1, in Banda Aceh, a group of unidentified men
kidnaped a 26-year-old human rights activist of the Coalition for
West Aceh Students Movement (Kagempar). Three days later, villagers
found his mutilated body face-down in the water underneath a bridge.
Reliable sources said the young man's skull had been penetrated
repeatedly with a screwdriver.
Police in Aceh did not announce the results of any investigations
into extrajudicial killings carried out by the security forces in
previous years. In addition, the Government released soldiers
suspected of involvement in the December 2000 slaying of three NGO
workers in North Aceh because the suspects already had served the
maximum period of detention before trial. During the year, credible
sources in North Aceh spotted civilian suspects in the same case who
had disappeared from police custody in 2001.
Numerous killings that occurred in Aceh during the year could not be
clearly attributed to either the security forces or the GAM rebels.
For instance, on March 16, unidentified assailants shot and killed
six persons in the town of Lombaro Angan, Aceh Besar district, after
30 police were ambushed while searching for GAM rebels. Local
residents said the victims all were politically inactive farmers who
were killed while working in a rice field. GAM spokesman Ayah Sofyan
later indicated that one of the six persons killed was a GAM member.
On September 4, in the village of Gumpueng Tiro, Pidie regency,
unidentified persons stopped a public minivan, abducted two high
school girls, took them to a nearby forest, and fatally shot them.
According to the local press, unidentified gunmen also shot and
killed 14 teachers during the year; it was unclear who was
responsible for killing schoolteachers in the province.
Investigation continued into the August 2001 massacre of 31 persons
at a palm oil plantation run by PT Bumi Flora in Idi Rayeuk, East
Aceh. The National Commission on Human Rights (KOMNASHAM) formed an
investigation team (KPP HAM), whose members visited the site in
July. The team examined evidence, spoke with local residents and met
with officials. However, the team did not announce the results of
the investigation. Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report
containing the text of interviews with witnesses to the slaughter
and noted that "all of the witnesses believed that the
Indonesian Army was responsible for the killings."
During the year, GAM members killed many police, soldiers, civil
servants, politicians, and other Aceh residents. Although many
Acehnese feared and resented the security forces because of their
involvement in human rights abuses, local support for the GAM
declined during the year, according to neutral Aceh-based observers.
The GAM alienated large segments of Acehnese society through a
campaign of extortion and kidnaping for profit. On January 31, in
Lhokseumawe, suspected GAM members shot and killed Dr. Murdan, as he
headed to work at a hospital in the community of Cut Meutia. The
killing had a ripple effect, as it discouraged paramedics from
providing services to that area. On March 6, at a coffee plantation
in the central Aceh town of Linge, GAM rebels apprehended,
questioned, and killed Sarifuji, an ethnic Javanese. The GAM
subsequently claimed responsibility. The GAM acknowledged that on
April 9, its forces shot and killed two soldiers as they traveled by
motorbike near the north Aceh town of Kuala Meuraksa. The soldiers'
two rifles were captured in the raid, which the GAM acknowledged
carrying out. During the year, police made progress in investigating
some killings allegedly committed by the GAM. However, the overall
amount of progress disappointed NGOs and legal experts. GAM leaders
accused the security forces of executing captured rebels, without
benefit of a trial. On June 26, Aceh's police chief announced the
arrest of seven men, including GAM rebel Tengku Don, in connection
with the killings of prominent Acehnese. The police accused Tengku
Don of involvement in the September 6, 2001 killing of Dayan Dawood,
rector of Banda Aceh's Syiah Kuala University, who was shot after
offering to mediate between the GAM and the Government. Tengku Don
allegedly possessed one of the pistols used in the killing, and
there were indications that the attack was criminally motivated. In
August a court convicted five GAM separatists of carrying out an
arson attack in Takengon, Central Aceh. The lead conspirator
received a 16-year term, while the others, who did not take part in
setting the blaze, were sentenced to 10 months in jail. Police did
not publicize any other investigations into killings allegedly
committed by the rebels in Aceh.
The Government did not announce the results of its investigation
into the 2001 killings of Aceh provincial legislator Zaini Sulaiman
and prominent politician Teungku Johan. The Government also did not
announce any results from its alleged investigations into the deaths
of Sukardi, Sulaiman Ahmad, Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, Tengku Safwan Idris,
or NGO activist Nashiruddin Daud, all killed in 2000.
In Papua, where separatist sentiment remained strong and a
low-intensity conflict continued between the TNI and armed rebels of
the Free Papua Movement (OPM), there were no verified cases of
politically motivated killings by the security forces during the
year; however, many such killings were alleged. There also were
deaths that many indigenous Papuans found suspicious. On January 22,
in Bonggo, Papua, Kopassus troops shot and killed
Leisina Yaneiba, a clerk at a logging company. She had
intervened in an altercation between Kopassus guards and a former
employee, Martinus Maware, whom the TNI alleged was an OPM rebel
(see Section 1.b.). On June 21, in the Papuan city of Wamena, Dani
tribal chief Yafet Yelemaken died following a trip to Bali, where he
had met a police acquaintance; friends concluded that the policeman
poisoned Yelemaken during a visit to his hotel room. Despite
widespread media coverage, no physical or factual evidence supported
this theory. In August on the Papuan island of Biak, NGOs, religious
groups, and Adat (traditional) councils accused the military of
killing at least three Papuans. Hospital records indicated, however,
that two of the persons in question drowned at sea and the third
died in a road accident. On August 31, unidentified assailants
killed three persons, including two foreigners, and wounded 12
others in an attack close to a large gold and copper mine near
Timika, in Papua. The victims were teachers on a recreational
outing. Several people dressed in military fatigues reportedly
stopped the teachers' convoy in a heavy fog on the Tembagapura-Timika
road and fired at the vehicles at close range. The Government
quickly alleged that OPM had carried out the attack; the group
denied responsibility. During the course of the initial police
investigation, senior police officials were quoted in the press
about indications that soldiers were involved in the attack. The
initial police probe and subsequent military follow-up
investigations were followed at year's end by a joint
police-military investigation. In addition, the Government agreed to
incorporate assistance from the United States Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
On June 9, police arrested highland leader Benny Wenda in connection
with a December 2000 attack in the northeastern Papuan community of
Abepura, which resulted in the deaths of two police officers and one
security guard. On October 26, Wenda escaped from prison and was on
the run at year's end.
The Government made progress in its investigation into the November
2001 killing of Papuan pro-independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay, who
was found dead in his car outside the provincial capital, Jayapura.
Based on a February 5 presidential decree, the Government set up a
National Investigation Committee (KPN) made up of Government and
civil society members to probe the killing. The team traveled to
Papua on February 25, and on March 19, the military announced that
soldiers had been declared suspects in the case. The KPN delivered
its findings to President Megawati on April 29, classifying the
killing as an ordinary crime, not a gross human rights violation.
The two Papuan KPN members and other Papuan groups rejected this
finding, and urged KOMNASHAM to investigate it as a state crime. The
Government initially detained nine Kopassus members in connection
with the killing and investigated three additional suspects. At
year's end, seven soldiers remained suspects, but none of them had
been tried.
Other government investigations in Papua made little progress.
Police made no perceptible headway in their probe of the 2001
disappearances and suspected killings of Willem Onde, leader of the
Papua Liberation Front Army (TPNP), and his friend, Johanes Tumeng.
Bodies believed to be theirs and bearing evidence of gunshot wounds
were found floating in the Kumundu River with their hands bound. The
Government did not report any progress in its investigation into the
alleged police killings in 2001 of 12 civilians in the northwest
Papua city of Wasior. NGOs claimed the Brimob carried out the
killings in revenge of a June 2001 attack on a police post that left
5 police officers dead. Unknown persons returned three of the six
weapons seized during that attack following negotiations between
police and community leaders. Negotiations for the return of the
remaining weapons continued at year's end. In a related case, the
Government announced no progress in its probe into the earlier
alleged police killings of six Papuan civilians in Waisor in May
2001. The six were apparently returning home from a celebration when
they were killed.
In the western Java Province of Banten, on March 23, seven members
of the Presidential Guard reportedly kidnaped and then killed Endang
Hidayat, village chief of Binuangeun, in Lebak regency. Evidence
suggested that the guardsmen killed Endang because he had informed
police that one of the guards had purchased stolen motorcycles.
Occasional clashes between the police and military resulted in
civilian deaths as well as fatalities among the security forces.
Chronically underfunded soldiers and police clashed periodically
over control of criminal enterprises, including drugs, gambling,
illegal logging, and prostitution. In September in the north
Sumatran town of Binjai, an armed confrontation between soldiers and
police left seven police, one soldier and three civilians dead, and
at least four civilians injured. The dispute reportedly began when
police arrested a soldier for selling the drug ecstasy. On October
2, Army Chief of Staff Ryamizard Ryacudu dishonorably discharged 20
soldiers who were involved in the dispute. On December 18, a
military tribunal sentenced 9 of those soldiers to between 5 months
and 30 months in prison.
Police and soldiers clashed 23 times during the year, a decrease of
at least 35 percent from the same period a year earlier. During the
year in Entiekong, West Kalimantan, a shootout between police and
soldiers caused an unknown number of casualties. The clash
reportedly occurred when police tried to close a TNI protected
gambling operation. On August 12, in the West Java village of
Cicurug, Bogor Regency, a brawl between police and soldiers left one
policeman dead and three injured. The clash reportedly occurred
after police tried to rescue an alleged pickpocket who was being
beaten by troops.
Police frequently used deadly force to apprehend suspects. On
September 25 in Makassar, South Sulawesi, police were criticized for
fatally shooting Iwan, a suspected gang member, who was in their
custody. Police claimed they shot him when he tried to escape;
however, an autopsy showed he was shot five times at close range.
The Legal Aid Society (LBH) condemned the killing. Reliable
statistics on the use of deadly force by police were not available.
Senior police officials said they punished officers who used
excessive force, but such punishments were not made public. On
December 31, the Jakarta police chief said his office fired or
suspended 107 officers during the year for misconduct, but he did
not identify the types of misconduct. The police did not announce
the results of any probe of excessive force from previous years.
The Government followed up on widespread killings in East Timor in
1999 by holding trials under the East Timor Ad Hoc Tribunal on Human
Rights; however, the Government failed to prosecute the cases
effectively (see Section 1.e.).
Of the six former East Timorese militia members who were convicted
of killing three UNHCR workers in December 2001 in Atambua, West
Timor, two were freed on their own recognizance, according to a
reliable source who spotted them during the year. The law allows for
appeals of Supreme Court decisions, but the six had not filed an
appeal by year's end.
On March 7, the Central Jakarta Criminal Court sentenced former East
Timor militiaman Jacobus Bere to 6 years in prison for the 2000
killing of New Zealand U.N. peacekeeper Leonard Manning. Prosecutors
had sought a 12-year term. The presiding judge offered no
explanation for the light sentence, and the prosecution vowed to
appeal but had not done so by year's end. On March 20, the court
acquitted three of Bere's accomplices.
During the year, there was no progress in the high profile Semanggi
and Trisakti cases. In May 1998, four students at Jakarta's Trisakti
University were shot dead, and a number of police officers were
implicated. Six months later, also in Jakarta, at least nine
demonstrators were shot dead at the Semanggi interchange. In 2002
efforts by KOMNASHAM to move the cases forward met with tremendous
resistance from the military, police, Attorney General's office, and
DPR. The security forces and many lawmakers maintained that the
incidents were criminal and did not constitute major human rights
abuses. The Attorney General's office twice returned case dossiers
to KOMNASHAM, stating they were incomplete.
In the eastern Provinces of Maluku, North Maluku, and Central
Sulawesi, ongoing communal conflicts between Christians and Muslims
continued, but at a much lower level than in previous years.
Nevertheless, civilians and sectarian civilian militias committed
scores of extrajudicial killings. The reduced death toll in those
areas resulted mainly from the heavy deployment of security forces
and, to a lesser extent, from government-brokered peace agreements
between the two sides.
In January 1999, intense sectarian fighting erupted in Maluku and
North Maluku, where the population was roughly evenly divided
between Christians and Muslims. The fighting followed years of
simmering political, economic and territorial tension, and,
according to some observers, recent provocation by outsiders. The
catalyst most often cited was a dispute between a Christian bus
driver and a Muslim passenger. The dispute degenerated into a street
brawl and 2 months of rioting, leaving hundreds of persons dead in
the Maluku capital, Ambon. The city fragmented into a number of
guarded religious enclaves patrolled by militias. The military
inserted an elite force, but by 2000 and 2001, virtually no Moluccan
island had been spared from the interreligious conflict. In May
2000, thousands of members of the Java-based Islamic extremist group
Laskar Jihad (LJ) arrived in the Moluccas to fight alongside fellow
Muslims, escalating the violence to a new level. Scholars said LJ
polarized many citizens along religious lines and reversed a
conflict in which the Christians previously had had the upper hand.
By the end of 2001, interreligious fighting in the Moluccas had
killed thousands of persons and displaced hundreds of thousands.
On February 11 and 12, the Moluccan Christian and Muslim communities
reached an agreement to work for peace. A major insertion of
security forces bolstered the government-brokered accord, known as
Malino II. Violence subsided quickly and a fragile peace emerged,
bringing some stability. On April 28, however, a gang of masked men
entered the Christian Ambonese village of Soya and killed at least
12 residents. The attack came hours after LJ's commander, Ja'far
Umar Thalib, delivered an incendiary speech, saying there would be
no reconciliation with Christians, and that Muslims must prepare for
combat. The Government arrested Thalib on May 4 and put him on trial
on August 15 for inciting religious violence, insulting the
Government, and humiliating the President. On December 19,
prosecutors requested that judges sentence Thalib to 1 year in jail,
a sentence that some human rights activists rejected as too light.
The trial was ongoing at year's end. On October 15, LJ closed its
headquarters, and Thalib and other LJ officials later confirmed that
the group had been dissolved. Hundreds of former members
subsequently left Ambon. On May 25, unidentified attackers in two
speedboats opened fire on the passenger ferry Oyo Star off Haruku
island and killed five Christians. At year's end, the shaky peace
remained in place, but violence in the Moluccas had killed
approximately 75 persons and prevented at least 300,000 displaced
persons from returning home during the year.
Historically, Central Sulawesi has shared certain similarities with
the Moluccas, including an evenly divided population of Christians
and Muslims and political and economic tensions. In April 2000, in
the city of Poso, communal violence quickly escalated. Mobs killed
numerous persons and destroyed vehicles and homes. LJ leveled entire
villages, some of them Christian and some of which were home to
Hindu migrants from Bali. Muslim and Christian religious leaders
were accused of incitement. On September 10, police arrested
Christian leader Rinaldy Damanik after they found firearms and
ammunition in a vehicle in which he was travelling. Observers said
Protestant and Muslim groups overreacted to violent incidents, with
the effect that reciprocal attacks became exponentially more lethal.
By the end of 2001, interreligious violence in the province had
killed approximately 2,000 persons and displaced more than 100,000
persons.
In December 2001, the government's deployment of 4,000 elite
soldiers and police helped dissipate the violence in Central
Sulawesi in the wake of the Malino I peace agreement between the
province's Christian and Muslim communities. Special police units
that kept LJ fighters in check helped to reduce the bloodshed.
During the year, amid a heavy security force presence, peaceful
conditions prompted many internally displaced persons (IDPs) to
return to their homes in the province. Residents removed many
barricades, and the local economy revived. However, on June 5, a
bomb exploded aboard a crowded passenger bus, killing five persons,
including a Protestant minister. The Government responded by
inserting additional security forces, which reinstituted a fragile
peace that held for the rest of the year. During the year, violence
in Central Sulawesi killed dozens of persons and prevented at least
113,000 IDPs from returning home, mostly in the Poso area.
In Kalimantan ethnic tensions continued, mainly between indigenous
Dayaks and ethnic Madurese settlers. However, the two groups largely
avoided bloodshed, unlike in 2001 when Dayaks killed hundreds of
Madurese. However, some killings occurred, including the May 26
decapitation of an elderly Madurese man in the Kapuas district of
Central Kalimantan (see Section 5). In late July, at least three
Madurese were beheaded in the province, but police concluded that
those killings were motivated criminally. In August the Norwegian
Refugee Council (NRC) reported that approximately 41,000 persons in
West Kalimantan were displaced. Virtually all were Madurese, most of
whom were driven out of the city of Sambas in 1999 or 2000 and fled
to Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan. The Government relocated
many to resettlement sites outside of Pontianak. Madurese groups,
including the Madurese Students Association, criticized the
Government for relocating Madurese IDPs to new sites, instead of
escorting them back to the land they legally owned and ensuring
their safety. The Government did not announce any progress in its
investigation into the 2001 killings of ethnic Madurese.
Bombs exploded in or near the cities of Ambon, Banda Aceh, Bandung,
Denpasar, Jakarta, Kuta, Manado, Medan, Palu and Poso, among others.
On August 1, in Jakarta, a car bomb exploded, wounding the
Philippine Ambassador and killing an Embassy guard and a woman who
happened to be passing by the area. By year's end, it was still
unclear who had carried out the attack, and investigators had not
made any arrests. On September 23, in Jakarta, a grenade exploded
inside a car as the occupants passed near a residence owned by a
foreign embassy, killing the man handling the grenade and injuring
the driver and another man, who both fled. The initial police
statement indicated that this was a failed attack against a foreign
diplomatic residence. Police subsequently captured three suspects. A
government investigation continued at year's end. On October 12, two
powerful bombs exploded in an entertainment district of Kuta, Bali,
killing at least 186 persons, many of them foreign tourists. The
bombings also injured 328 persons and destroyed 53 buildings.
According to a senior police official, the incident was the most
lethal terrorist attack in the country's history. Investigators
subsequently arrested 15 suspects, at least 3 of whom reportedly
acknowledged ties to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a terrorist group linked
with al-Qa'ida. The investigation continued at year's end.
The Government made some progress in pursuing justice for previous
bombings. On July 24, the Jakarta High Court handed a 20-year
sentence to Malaysian citizen Taufik bin Abdul Halim for the August
2001 bombing of the city's Atrium shopping complex, which seriously
injured six persons. Abdul Halim was carrying the bomb when it
exploded prematurely. At year's end, the Supreme Court was reviewing
his case. On July 18, the Supreme Court extended the prison term of
1 of 4 men convicted in the September 2000 bombing of the Jakarta
Stock Exchange, which killed 15 persons. The court rejected the
appeal by Tengku Ismuhadi Jafar and changed his 20-year sentence to
life imprisonment. On October 19, the Government announced the
arrest of alleged JI leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir in connection with
the 38 bombs that exploded across the archipelago on Christmas Eve
2000, which killed 19 persons and injured at least 120 others. The
investigation continued at year's end.
Mobs carried out vigilante justice on many occasions, but reliable
nationwide statistics were not available. Incidents of theft or
perceived theft triggered many such incidents. On June 14, in the
north Jakarta community of Tanjung Priok, pedicab drivers beat and
severely injured two municipal guards. On June 20, in the West Java
city of Tangerang, a mob burned to death a man who had allegedly
stolen a television and a VCD player from a house. The man's fingers
were removed, making a positive identification of the body more
difficult. On August 26, hundreds of residents of the West Java town
of Majalengka attacked and killed two plainclothes policemen
suspected of stealing motorbikes. The victims were investigating
reports of motorbike theft. On September 9, in the same city, a mob
fatally assaulted a local resident after he attacked a motorcycle
taxi driver and tried to steal the vehicle.
b. Disappearance
According to the Committee for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence (Kontras), large numbers of persons who disappeared over
the past 20 years, mainly in conflict areas, remained unaccounted
for at year's end. In addition, hundreds of new disappearances were
reported. Many of the disappearances occurred in Aceh, where
according to the Aceh branch of Kontras, approximately 224 persons
disappeared during the year.
At least three other disappearances took place in Papua. Some
disappearances were motivated politically, while in other cases
persons were kidnaped for ransom. Human rights organizations accused
police and soldiers in Aceh of involvement in many of the
disappearances; however, GAM also kidnaped many civilians for
ransom. In many cases, little or no information was available
regarding a victim's sudden disappearance. On January 28, in the
village of Kuala, West Aceh, three adults and one infant disappeared
while enroute to a plantation where the adults worked. On February
13, the village chief of Lhok Leubu, Pidie regency disappeared while
returning from a shopping trip to a neighboring town. The Government
did not take significant action to prevent the security forces from
kidnaping civilians.
GAM rebels kidnaped and subsequently freed many people during the
year. On June 30, suspected GAM rebels hijacked the Pelangi
Frontier, a supply ship operating off the northern coast of Aceh,
and took nine crewmen hostage. They released the crew a week later,
with a statement that the release was based on confirmation that the
crew was not associated with the military. Credible sources said
that no ransom was paid. Also in June, the security forces accused
the GAM of kidnaping nine athletes who were returning to the
Acehnese town of Sigli from a sports competition in the city of
Medan. According to a credible witness, armed rebels stopped the
athletes' vehicle and released the driver and his assistant, but
detained the athletes. In July they were released and no ransom was
paid. The GAM denied responsibility and stated that the TNI had
fabricated the story. In January in Peureulak, East Aceh, the GAM
kidnaped and detained for 4 months nine high school students who
were accused of spying for Brimob. The kidnapings came after
soldiers located and killed three GAM rebels. One detainee alleged
she had been raped. The Government did not investigate this
allegation during the year and failed to announce any progress in
investigations into other GAM-linked disappearances during the year.
The Government did not take significant action to prevent security
force members from carrying out kidnapings. According to a credible
human rights activist, police and soldiers in Aceh frequently and
illegally detained citizens. The activist said dozens were held at
any given time. It was unclear whether any such detainees died in
custody during the year.
A number of ethnic Papuans disappeared during the year. On February
21, Martinus Maware, a former logging company employee and suspected
OPM member, disappeared while under heavy guard at a military
hospital, where he was being treated after soldiers guarding the
company shot him in the leg during a dispute. On March 2, in the
Central Java city of Salatiga, two men on a motorcycle kidnaped
Mathius Rumbrapuk, one of four students convicted of subversion for
a December 2000 demonstration in front of a foreign embassy.
Rumbrapuk's friends alleged that the kidnapers were plainclothes
policemen. There were no developments in the case of missing Papuan
Hubertus Wresman, who was kidnaped from his parents' home by
Kopassus troops in June 2001 according to Amnesty International (AI)
and Wresman's relatives. The Institute for Human Rights Study and
Advocacy (ELS HAM) reported that Wresman participated in an attack
on a military post that killed four soldiers several months before
he disappeared.
The Government made slight progress in its investigation into the
July 1996 attack by hundreds of progovernment civilians and soldiers
on the Jakarta headquarters of what was then the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI); 23 persons disappeared and 5 persons died in
the attack. In September Jakarta prosecutors said they had received
three police dossiers on suspects, who finally were being placed on
trial. Prosecutors returned two other dossiers to the police, which
they described as incomplete. One named General Sutiyoso, Jakarta's
military commander in 1996 and current Governor, as a suspect.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment
The Criminal Code makes it a crime punishable by up to 4 years in
prison for any official to use violence or force to elicit a
confession. In practice, law enforcement officials widely ignored
such statutes. Security forces continued to employ torture and other
forms of abuse to produce confessions and as a form of punishment.
Police often resorted to physical abuse, even in minor incidents.
During the year, the security forces committed numerous acts of
torture in Aceh. According to the Aceh branch of Kontras, 1,472
persons were tortured in the province during the year. On May 6, the
military released Acehnese Rizki Muhammad, after more than 1 week of
detention, during which soldiers allegedly clubbed and burned him
with molten plastic. Kontras stated that on May 19, soldiers in the
north Aceh village of Alue Dua visited the home of farmer Nurdin
Doni, a suspected GAM member. When they learned he was not home,
they broke his wife's feet and forced the couple's three children,
aged 8 to 14, to stand in a fish pond for 3 hours. The Government
did not hold anyone responsible, nor did it launch an investigation
into the case. On May 24, a joint military/police squad questioned
M. Thaleb, in the village of Meunasah Blouk, Blang Mangat
subdistrict. The troops accused Thaleb of being a GAM member and
tortured him, peeling some of the skin off his face and causing
injuries to his lips and teeth. On June 6, in the north Aceh village
of Jawa-Banda Sakti, three Brimob policemen entered the home of
Syahrul Gunawan and inflicted severe injuries to his head, eyes,
nose, and cheeks.
Police in Papua occasionally also tortured detainees, and in rare
cases, their injuries resulted in death. On July 31, according to
ELS HAM, Yanuarius Usi died in police custody as a result of
torture.
Rapes, some punitive, occurred frequently in conflict zones. Human
rights advocates blamed many of the rapes on soldiers and police.
Statistics were unavailable, but credible sources provided a number
of accounts that involved both soldiers and police. Kontras stated
that in April, for an unknown reason, police arrested a 17-year-old
girl at her home in the Acehnese village of Ulee Blang. They
forcibly intoxicated her with alcohol then raped her. An interfaith
organization operating in Poso, Central Sulawesi, reported that high
rates of depression among female IDPs because many had been raped
and impregnated by Brimob members.
There were no reports during the year that East Timorese women were
held against their will as sex slaves in West Timor, as had been
alleged in previous years.
During the year, there was no progress in the government's probe
into the May 1998 civil unrest in Jakarta and other cities, which
included attacks against Sino-Indonesian women. However, in
December, KOMNASHAM set up a team to investigate the incident.
Occasionally Brimob personnel used arson as a form of punishment. On
October 9, an Aceh police official said 40 police officers, some
from Brimob, were questioned for allegedly burning down 80 shops and
homes. None were prosecuted. Witnesses said police started the fires
after GAM members killed two policemen. The GAM burned numerous
rural schools and other government buildings during the year.
Credible sources stated that GAM was implicated in the June 14 and
15 torching of seven schools, four of which were located in the city
of Lhokseumawe.
During the year, Islamic extremists attacked a number of nightclubs,
ostensibly to punish them for tolerating or promoting vice. The
Islam
Defenders Front (FPI) in Jakarta carried out many such attacks,
during which prostitutes sometimes were assaulted. On March 7, the
eve of the Islamic New Year, hundreds of FPI members attacked a pool
hall in South Jakarta after approaching bars and discotheques in
Central Jakarta and demanding that they close out of respect for the
holiday. On June 26, approximately 200 FPI members smashed beer
bottles, signs and windows in the popular Jaksa street area of
Jakarta, in full view of police. On October 4, 400 FPI members
attacked a billiard hall and discotheque in West Jakarta, angered
that they were open on a Muslim holiday. Following those attacks,
however, police arrested 13 FPI members and charged 8 of them with
disturbing the peace. Community and religious leaders praised these
arrests. On October 16, police also arrested FPI Chairman Habib
Rizieq in connection with cases of vandalism and violence going back
to 2000.
Prison conditions were harsh, with 12 inmates typically sharing a
2-meter by 4-meter cell. Guards regularly extorted money and
mistreated inmates. The wealthy or privileged had access to better
treatment in prison. In July Hutomo "Tommy Suharto"
Mandala Putra started serving a 15-year sentence at Batu prison on
the island of Nusakambangan, off of Java's south coast. Tempo
magazine reported that his cell, unlike most, had a bathroom of its
own and no bars on the windows. Prison authorities housed female
inmates separately from men, but in similar conditions. Juveniles
were not separated from adults. There was no official restriction
against prison visits by human rights monitors. In practice, prison
officials and guards rarely provided access, although the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited convicted
prisoners on occasion.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
The Criminal Procedures Code
contains provisions against arbitrary arrest and detention, but
lacks adequate enforcement mechanisms, and authorities routinely
violated it. The code provides prisoners with the right to notify
their families promptly and specifies that warrants must be produced
during an arrest (except if, for example, a suspect is caught in the
act of committing a crime). The law allows investigators to issue
warrants, but, at times, authorities made arrests without warrants.
No reliable statistics exist on how many arbitrary arrests and
detentions took place during the year.
A defendant may challenge the legality of his arrest and detention
in a pretrial hearing and may sue for compensation if wrongfully
detained. However, it was virtually impossible for detainees to
invoke this procedure or to receive compensation after being
released without charge. Military and civilian courts rarely
accepted appeals based on claims of improper arrest and detention.
The Criminal Procedures Code also limits periods of pretrial
detention and specifies when the courts must approve extensions,
usually after 60 days. The courts generally respected these limits.
The authorities routinely approved extensions of periods of
detention.
In areas of separatist conflict, such as Aceh and Papua, police
frequently and arbitrarily detained persons without warrants,
charges, or court proceedings. The authorities rarely granted bail.
The authorities frequently prevented access to defense counsel
during investigations, and limited or prevented access to legal
assistance from voluntary legal defense organizations. It was
unclear whether any person died while in custody during the year.
On October 18, the Government issued two decrees on terrorism that
allow it to use evidence from wiretaps, video recordings, and other
surveillance previously inadmissible in court to fight terrorism
(see Section 1.f.). The first decree loosened restrictions on
evidence to prosecute terrorists; allowed up to 7 days of detention
based solely on intelligence reports; and provided the police with
authority to hold suspects for whom there was stronger evidence for
6 months without the authority of prosecutors or judges. The second
decree stipulates that the first decree can be applied retroactively
to detain suspects who were involved in the October 12 bombings. The
country's largest Islamic organizations and parties across the
political spectrum publicly supported the decrees. Some human rights
NGOs raised concerns that the decrees could facilitate human rights
abuses, but prominent human rights lawyers judged the safeguards
were better than those in other parts of the Criminal Code.
In Aceh security forces routinely employed arbitrary arrest and
detention without trial. On July 16, in Banda Aceh, local police
took seven young members of the Acehnese Women's Democratic
Organization (ORPAD) into custody following a rally in which they
expressed antigovernment views. The police released six of the seven
women a day later, but continued to hold Raihana Diani, who helped
organize the rally, through the end of the year. The authorities
charged her with insulting the President, a violation of Articles
134 and 137 of the Criminal Code. On December 23, prosecutors
demanded a sentence of 8 months. At year's end, Diani still was
awaiting sentencing. On July 31, in Papua, Yanuarius Usi allegedly
died in police custody as a result of mistreatment (see Section
1.c.). On September 26, police in Jakarta arrested and briefly
detained anticorruption activist Azas Tigor Nainggolan. Tigor,
Chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (FAKTA), allegedly slandered
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso by claiming that he had bribed city
councilors.
On September 11, in southern Aceh, the TNI detained two foreign
women in an area off limits to foreigners. The soldiers denied them
Consular access and, according to the two women, punched and
sexually harassed them. The TNI subsequently turned the two over to
police, who transferred them to Banda Aceh, where they were charged
with violating the terms of their tourist visas. On December 30, a
court convicted them for violating the terms of their tourist visas,
sentencing one to 4 months in prison and the other to 5 months.
On April 17, police in Jakarta released imprisoned Acehnese student
leader Fasial Saifuddin, pending appeal of his 1-year sentence for
"spreading hatred
toward the state." Saifuddin, of the NGO SIRA, had demonstrated
in front of the United Nations (U.N.) building in Jakarta; he had
served approximately 6 months of his sentence. In November 2001,
police in Banda Aceh released from detention student leader Kautsar
Mohammed, who was held on the same charge as Saifuddin.
The Constitution prohibits forced exile, and the Government did not
employ it.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The Constitution provides for judicial independence. However, in
practice, the judiciary remained subordinate to the Executive and
was often influenced by the military, business interests, and
politicians outside of the legal system. The law requires that the
Justice Ministry gradually transfer administrative and financial
control over the judiciary to the Supreme Court by 2004. However,
judges were civil servants employed by the executive branch, which
controlled their assignments, pay, and promotion. Low salaries
encouraged corruption, and judges were subject to pressure from
governmental authorities, which often influenced the outcome of
cases.
Under the Supreme Court is a quadripartite judiciary of general,
religious, military, and administrative courts. The law provides for
the right of appeal, sequentially, from a district court to a High
Court to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court does not consider
factual aspects of a case, but rather the lower court's application
of the law. The judicial branch was theoretically equal to the
executive and legislative branches and had the right of judicial
review over laws passed by the DPR, as well as government
regulations and presidential, ministerial, and gubernatorial
decrees.
At the district court level, a panel of judges conducts trials by
posing questions, hearing evidence, deciding on guilt or innocence,
and assessing punishment. Judges rarely reversed initial judgments
in the appeals process, although they lengthened or shortened
sentences. Both the defense and prosecution can appeal verdicts.
The law presumes that defendants are innocent until proven guilty
and permits bail. Defendants have the right to confront witnesses
and call witnesses in their defense. An exception is allowed in
cases in which distance or expense is deemed excessive for
transporting witnesses to court; in such cases, sworn affidavits may
be introduced. Prosecutors were reluctant to plea bargain with
defendants or witnesses, or to grant witnesses immunity from
prosecution. As a result, many witnesses were unwilling to testify,
particularly against government officials. The courts often allowed
forced confessions and limited the presentation of defense evidence.
Defendants did not have the right to remain silent and some were
compelled to testify against themselves.
The Criminal Procedures Code gives defendants the right to an
attorney from the time of arrest, but not during the prearrest
investigative period, which may involve prolonged detention. Persons
summoned to appear as witnesses in investigations do not have the
right to legal assistance. The law requires counsel to be appointed
in capital punishment cases and those involving a prison sentence of
15 years or more. In cases involving potential sentences of 5 years
or more, the law requires the appointment of an attorney if the
defendant is indigent and requests counsel. In theory indigent
defendants may obtain private legal assistance, but in practice
authorities persuaded many defendants not to hire an attorney. In
many cases, procedural protections, including those against forced
confessions, were inadequate to ensure a fair trial. Widespread
corruption continued throughout the legal system. Bribes influenced
prosecution, conviction, and sentencing in countless civil and
criminal cases.
A military justice system exists and during the course of the year,
members of the armed forces were prosecuted, generally for common
crimes.
Four district courts exist to adjudicate gross human rights
violations. The law provides for each to have five members,
including three noncareer human rights judges, who are appointed to
5-year terms. Verdicts may be appealed to the standing High Court
and Supreme Court. The law provides for internationally recognized
definitions of genocide, crimes against humanity, and command
responsibility, but it does not include war crimes as a gross
violation of human rights. The law stipulates the powers of the
Attorney General, who is the sole investigating and prosecuting
authority in cases of gross human rights violations, and who is
empowered to appoint ad hoc investigators and prosecutors. The law
also empowers the Attorney General (as well as the courts) to detain
suspects or defendants for multiple fixed periods in cases of gross
human rights violations. However, the law requires the Human Rights
Court to approve the extension of any detention of suspected human
rights violators. For gross human rights violations that occurred
before the enactment of the law, the law allows the President, with
the recommendation of the DPR, to create an ad hoc bench within one
of the human rights courts to hear cases associated with a
particular offense.
On March 14, the ad hoc human rights tribunal for East Timor
convened in Jakarta after the government failed to investigate
instances of gross human rights abuses within the timeframes
stipulated by the human rights tribunal law. According to a broad
interpretation of this law, the attorney general should have
commenced prosecution no later than February 23, 2001, or a maximum
of 310 days after the formation of his special investigative team on
April 19, 2000. A stricter reading of the statute would have moved
forward the deadline for prosecution by approximately 3 months, or
310 days after Komnasham provided the results of its inquiry into
the East Timor atrocities on January 31, 2000. The DPR did not
recommend the tribunal's establishment until March 2001; the
presidential decree authorizing its establishment was withheld until
late the following month, and the government deferred selection of
non-career tribunal jurists until mid-January. The government's
failure to meet statutory deadlines in preparing cases for the
tribunal represented a major procedural violation that could provide
grounds to overturn any convictions on appeal.
In his April 2001 decree creating the tribunal, former President
Wahid limited the tribunal's jurisdiction over East Timor atrocities
to those that occurred after the August 30, 1999 referendum. In
August 2001, President Megawati allowed the tribunal to also include
selected incidents that occurred in East Timor during April 1999,
thus retroactively applying the country's human rights statutes to
East Timor cases for the first time. However, President Megawati's
decree limited the tribunal's jurisdiction to only those atrocities
that occurred during April 1999 and September 1999 in 3 locations:
Liquica, Dili, and Suai. The time and geographic restrictions placed
on the tribunal's jurisdiction complicated prosecutors' ability to
demonstrate that the atrocities in East Timor throughout 1999 were
gross human rights abuses, defined as a systematic and widespread
pattern of abuse by security force officers and their militia
proxies. Legal experts said that in order to win a conviction in the
tribunal, it was crucial to prove that such a pattern of abuse
occurred. Pursuant to the august 2001 presidential decree,
prosecutors brought charges against only 18 of the individuals
implicated in East Timor atrocities by the January 2000 Komnasham
inquiry report.
The East Timor ad hoc human rights tribunal convened its first trial
in March and concluded 14 of 18 trials during the year. Only one
member of the security forces was found guilty in connection with
1999 violence in the former Indonesian territory. The court
convicted army Lt. Col. Soedjarwo of crimes against humanity for
failing to prevent pro-Jakarta militiamen from attacking the Dili
seaside home and office of Archbishop Belo, where a number of
civilians had taken refuge, and at least 13 persons were killed.
Soedjarwo was sentenced to 5 years in jail. The tribunal also
convicted two other persons, both civilians. Former East Timor
Governor Abilio Soares was sentenced to 3 years, and former Aitarak
militia leader Eurico Guterres--like Soares an ethnic East Timorese--received
a 10-year sentence. Tribunal law mandates a 10-year minimum term of
imprisonment. All three persons convicted remained free at year's
end, pending their appeals. Most of the 18 persons indicted were
low- and mid-level officers and officials. All were charged as
responsible parties to the 1999 massacres at Liquica church (April
6) and at Manuel Carrascalao's home in Dili (April 17), as well as
those at the Dili diocese (September 5), and at Archbishop Belo's
home and the Suai church (September 6).
In all of the trials, prosecutors presented weak cases that failed
to prove the defendants' involvement in gross human rights abuses.
Prosecutors did not fully use the resources or evidence available to
them from the UN and elsewhere in documenting the atrocities in East
Timor, and called few East Timorese witnesses. Most of their
remaining witnesses were themselves defendants in other cases in the
tribunal's docket. In some cases, judges harassed witnesses and/or
disregarded their testimony, which highlighted concern over the
overall fairness of the judicial process. In addition, the regular
presence in the gallery of substantial numbers of uniformed military
personnel and their East Timorese supporters intimidated witnesses.
In one case, judges failed to authorize an interpreter's
participation in the trial, with the effect that a witness was
unable to testify in her native language, Tetum. Consequently, the
witness was compelled to testify in rudimentary Indonesian, which
resulted in heckling by soldiers present in the courtroom, which the
judges made no attempt to control. UN Human Rights Chief Mary
Robinson said the results of the trials were "not satisfying in
terms of international human rights standards."
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home or
Correspondence
The law requires judicial warrants for searches except for cases
involving subversion, economic crimes, and corruption. Nevertheless,
security officials occasionally broke into homes and offices. The
authorities generally did not monitor private communications but
they occasionally spied on individuals and their residences, and
listened in on telephone calls. There were reports that the
Government occasionally infringed upon privacy rights of migrant
workers returning from abroad, particularly women. Corrupt officials
sometimes subjected the migrants to arbitrary strip searches,
expropriated valuables, ordered currency conversions at below-market
rates, and extracted bribes at special lanes set aside at airports
for returning workers.
On January 8, President Megawati signed the Law on Overcoming
Dangerous Situations, which provides the military broad powers in a
declared state of emergency, such as limiting land, air and sea
traffic, and ordering people to relocate. However, the Government
did not implement the law during the year (see Section 2.d.). On May
23, in Maluku Province, after attempts to formally impose martial
law met widespread opposition, Coordinating Minister for Political
and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced that an Army
General would lead both the military and the police in the province.
Kontras and other NGOs criticized the move, arguing that
restructuring the command system amounted to imposition of martial
law.
Human rights activists increasingly viewed the national identity
card (KTP) system as a form of government interference in the
privacy of citizens. The KTPs, which all citizens are required to
carry, identifies the holder's religion. NGOs charged that the KTPs
undermined the country's secular tradition and endangered
cardholders who traveled through an area of interreligious conflict.
Members of the five religions officially recognized by the
Government--Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism and
Buddhism--had little or no trouble obtaining accurate identification
cards during the year; however, members of minority religions,
frequently were denied a card, or denied one that accurately
reflected their faith (see Section 2.c.).
In many parts of the archipelago, particularly in Kalimantan and
Papua, indigenous persons believed that the government-sponsored
transmigration
program interfered with their traditional ways of life, land usage,
and economic opportunities. During the year, the program moved
103,218 households from overpopulated areas to more isolated and
less developed areas. The Government sent 21,617 households to
Central Kalimantan, making that province the top destination.
The Government used its authority, and at times intimidation, to
appropriate land for development projects, particularly in areas
claimed by indigenous people, and often without fair compensation.
The law provides KOMNASHAM statutory authority to write legislation
and allows for a membership of 35. However, the DPR selected only 23
persons. It was unclear how, or whether, the remaining 12 seats
would be filled. Critics faulted the legislators for passing over a
number of outspoken human rights campaigners.
The law also provides KOMNASHAM with subpoena powers. Disputes that
were settled by written agreement through the Commission were
enforceable legally in court. The law does not give KOMNASHAM the
power to enforce its recommendations, however, and in July one
former member reported that the Government ignored over 80 percent
of the panel's recommendations.
On July 8, the DPR announced the selection of 23 KOMNASHAM members,
5 of whom were members of the previous panel. Some activists said
obstructionists within KOMNASHAM systematically weakened the
Commission by suppressing probes and arranging for human rights
cases to be transferred to the police. The law provides KOMNASHAM
statutory authority to write legislation and allows for a membership
of 35. However, the DPR selected only 23 persons. It was unclear
how, or whether, the remaining 12 seats would be filled. Critics
faulted the legislators for passing over a number of outspoken human
rights campaigners. The law also provides KOMNASHAM with subpoena
powers. Disputes that were settled by written agreement through the
Commission were enforceable legally in court. The law does not give
KOMNASHAM the power to enforce its recommendations, however, and in
July one former member reported that the Government ignored over 80
percent of the panel's recommendations.
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