Torture Still Widespread in Indonesia

By Barrie | April 17th, 2008 | No Comments

Torture and other human rights abuses are still rampant in Indonesia 10 years after the fall of Soeharto, Amnesty International said Wednesday. Though the government ratified the UN Convention Against Torture and instituted key legal reforms after Soeharto’s demise, Amnesty receives reports of abuse “on a regular basis,” a briefing paper by the rights group said.

“As of early 2008, old and new national laws continue to offer inadequate safeguards to deter the use of torture and ill-treatment in all circumstances,” the report said.

“Amnesty International receives on a regular basis reports indicating that state agents have been committing torture and other ill-treatment during arrests, interrogation and detention, sometimes leading to deaths,” it said.

“This context of widespread use of torture and other ill-treatment is aggravated and supported by a pattern of impunity throughout the country, which can be perceived by perpetrators as giving them license to continue violating human rights.”

The Amnesty report was put together ahead of the United Nations Committee Against Torture’s review of Indonesia’s progress in eradicating torture in May.

Last November, visiting UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, said beatings and other forms of torture were entrenched in much of Indonesia’s prison system.

Meanwhile, rights activists have urged the government to implement the UN Human Rights Council’s call for Indonesia to combat its culture of impunity and to protect its human rights defenders.

Issues of impunity and protection for human rights activists were highlighted in the April 9 session in Geneva, Switzerland, during which recommendations for Indonesia were formulated, Human Rights Working Group coordinator Rafendi Djamin said.

“We fully support these recommendations and we urge the government to immediately put these recommendations into practice,” Rafendi told reporters Tuesday.

The working group on the Universal Periodic Review (established in accordance with the Human Rights Council’s decision of June 18, 2006) held its session in Geneva between April 7 and 18.

The Indonesian delegation was headed by Foreign Ministry multilateral affairs director general Rezlan Ishar Jenie.

Rafendi, who represented Indonesia’s civil society groups at the review, said the session focused on the culture of impunity which had seriously hampered prosecution of past perpetrators of human rights abuses.

In Indonesia, Rafendi said, the persistent culture of impunity could be seen clearly in the characteristics of law enforcement bodies, including the Attorney General’s Office.

“The way they resolve human rights abuses remains the same as it was in the past,” Rafendi said.

He said combating impunity was an indicator of the extent to which a country had improved its protection of human rights.

“Combating (a culture of) impunity not only requires changing the norms, but also reforming politics and institutions.

“While the norms may have changed, the basic transformation in human rights cannot occur if institutions still have the same characteristics,” he said.

Source: The Jakarta Post