South China Morning Post
Friday, April 5, 2002

INDONESIA

UN must not turn blind eye to atrocities, Amnesty insists 

VAUDINE ENGLAND in Jakarta

Indonesian troops and police use torture, pervert the course of justice and commit "appalling" human rights abuses - and it is time the international community acted to condemn such behaviour. 

That was the message of the Amnesty International delegation attending hearings of the 58th United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. 

"Our message to the commission is that it cannot ignore the human rights situation in Indonesia any longer," said Lucia Withers, Amnesty's Indonesia researcher. "As the UN's highest body on human rights it must show consistency by acting now to condemn the appalling human rights practices of the security forces in Papua, Aceh and elsewhere in Indonesia.," 

World attention was focused more on the abuses committed in East Timor, a fashionable cause, while gross violations continued beyond the attention of media and international observers in Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), Aceh and more. 

"Just because neither the world's media nor the UN is in Papua to witness the violations, does not mean that they are not happening," Ms Withers said. 

The highest-profile murder in a long line of assaults by troops in Papua was that of pro-independence leader and local chieftain Theys Eluay. Since his killing on November 10, five separate inquiries have been held to find those responsible, but no one has been charged. 

"Amnesty International fears that this plethora of investigations is being used to obstruct the case from being brought to trial," said Ms Withers. 

Some individuals in the police and the army have admitted the involvement of troops in the murder. But the case is stalled because, local news reports suggest, the killing resulted from competition between two Jakarta-based generals wrangling over logging concessions which needed Theys' sanction. 

Kusnanto Anggoro, an expert on the military from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told Tempo news magazine: "Theys was the victim of a dispute between two retired generals in Jakarta." 

The magazine does not name the generals but gives enough clues to work it out: "One of them is no longer in a position of power and is facing charges of human rights abuses. The other is becoming more influential in the worlds of politics and intelligence. The two generals, according to Kusnanto, are fighting over who will become kingmaker in the national political 
arena," it reported. 

Such cases surprise few people in Jakarta, and Indonesia's transition towards more open government after the fall of Suharto in 1998 has taken away some of the heat of international condemnation of what are brutal but standard operating procedures for Indonesia's discredited security authorities. 

These forces mount "indiscriminate operations" against whole communities in retaliation for attacks, Ms Withers added.