By James Balowski
Indonesia has moved toward a more pluralistic democracy but human rights abuses remained rife in 1999, according to a US State Department report released on February 25.
In June, Indonesia held its first free elections since Suharto seized power in 1965 and President Abdurrahman Wahid has pledged to reform pivotal sectors of the nation, the report said. But human rights abuses, which culminated in the murderous action of militias in East Timor and Aceh, were still rampant and much remained to be done. Moreover, the country's severe economic crisis that began in July 1997 had exacerbated the uneven distribution of money and power, the report said.
While stating that "security forces continued to commit extra-judicial killings" under Wahid, it was the abuses under the previous government of B.J. Habibie that received the sharpest criticism.
Wide-ranging violations
"Elements of the security forces and pro-integration militias, armed and largely supported by the military, were responsible for numerous extra-judicial killings in East Timor in the early months of the year [1999]", the report said.
Human rights violations in East Timor included "summary executions, massacres, massive deportation, attacks on women and children, houses and buildings besieged and destroyed ... and an attack on the only functioning medical clinic in Dili".
In Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh, where there is widespread support for independence, "military forces and national police committed numerous extra-judicial killings and used excessive force to quell separatist movements", the report said.
Security forces "also were responsible for numerous instances of indiscriminate shooting of civilians, torture, rape, beatings and other abuse, and arbitrary detention" in various regions of the country. The report did note that at least one military officer had received a jail sentence for human rights abuses and that the government-appointed National Human Rights Commission was examining other violations.
Although the government has ratified the International Labor Organisation convention, enforcement of labour standards was weak. "Forced and bonded child labour remained a problem", the report said, citing the case of several thousand children who are forced to work on fishing platforms where they're held as virtual prisoners, living in isolation and working 12 to 20 hours a day in often dangerous conditions.
Indonesia was also "a source, transit point, and destination for trafficked women and children for the purpose of prostitution and sometimes for forced labour", the document stated.
While the constitution protects freedom of expression and requires judicial warrants for searches — except in cases of suspected subversion, economic crimes and corruption — the report noted that government security officials monitored the movements and activities of former Communist Party members.
'A few omissions'
On February 29, the US-based solidarity organisation ETAN (East Timor Action Network) released a statement cautiously welcoming the report.
Calling it "generally accurate", ETAN pointed out, however, "Progress has come at a tremendous price. Not only have the people of East Timor and Indonesia survived decades of brutal repression and mass slaughter, but their 1999 passage toward freedom was accompanied by widespread killings and many other human rights violations. Although East Timor is now under interim United Nations administration and can look forward to peaceful democracy, many parts of Indonesia continue to suffer at the hands of Indonesia's military."
ETAN also cited "a few omissions". The report fails to convey the extent to which the Indonesian military and its militias attempted to subvert the UN referendum process, ETAN stated. Although some militia crimes preceding the May 5 accord (which agreed that Indonesia would be responsible for security) are described, as is the devastation after the results were announced on September 4, the deliberate terror and mayhem operation conducted by the militias during the referendum process is largely omitted.
There is no mention, for example, of the systematic attacks on offices of the CNRT (National Council for Timorese Resistance) during the August campaign period, which squelched public advocacy by the pro-independence side.
ETAN was also critical of the report's inadequacy when discussing human rights abuses committed before 1999, especially those in which no progress towards justice has been made.
Although a few such cases are mentioned (such as the 1991 Dili massacre), the Indonesian military committed hundreds of thousands of human rights violations during their 24-year occupation of East Timor. A major deficiency of current Indonesian and international investigations is that they fail to consider violations before 1999.
The report also does not describe the scale or the systematic nature of the destruction. In less than two weeks, the military, police and militias drove 650,000 of the 850,000 East Timorese from their homes — they either fled into the mountains or were forced, often at gunpoint, onto trucks or ships and taken to West Timor or other parts of Indonesia.
Simultaneously, Indonesian forces deliberately destroyed 70% of all buildings and nearly all of East Timor's infrastructure. The legacy of this devastation will severely hamper efforts to rebuild the independent East Timor.
US responsibility
The report, ETAN notes, fails to mention the responsibility of other countries, including the United States. The UN Security Council approved the May 5 agreements which, for the first time since 1975, legalised the Indonesian military presence in East Timor.
Australia also played a key role in ensuring that Indonesia would be responsible for security, even though both Australia and the US had detailed information about the military's campaign of terror and its plans to wipe out the independence movement.
The report also makes no mention of a fraudulent Indonesian military-brokered "cease-fire" on April 21, which was used by the US and the UN to justify their acceptance of the flawed May 5 accords.
Appropriately, the report devotes more space to Indonesian violations than to those by the East Timorese resistance, since nearly all violations were committed by the government and its militia proxies.
However, by failing to quantify the violations on both sides, it conceals how rarely the resistance resorted to violence — and ignores their right to self-defence or to oppose an illegal occupation. During the entire consultation process and post-ballot violence, the independence guerrillas of Falintil refrained from responding to military and militia provocations.
Although the report frequently includes specific names, dates and places when describing abuses by Indonesia, allegations of abuses by independence forces are frequently cited without any details. The report claims, for instance, "In East Timor, there were numerous reports of abductions and murders of police and TNI [military] personnel, allegedly at the hands of separatists".
Progress toward democratic rule is often overstated. Although the June elections in Indonesia were mostly free and fair, the October selection of Wahid as president was not democratic. When the candidate preferred by only one-eighth of the voters is chosen through secret political deals, this can hardly be considered an "open, transparent, democratic process".
US resumes military training
On February 18, the Washington Post reported that the US defence department has "quietly" resumed training Indonesian military officers in the United States. Training was suspended in the aftermath of the Indonesian violence in East Timor.
US officials claim that it was restarted "without fanfare" to avoid criticism from human rights groups. They also claimed that the program will be discontinued if the Indonesian military does not improve its record.
Washington said it was pleased with many of the reforms being implemented in Indonesia — particularly Wahid's decision to suspend defence minister General Wiranto, who has been implicated in the pro-Jakarta militia violence — and is hoping resumption of training will serve as an incentive to follow through with other reforms.
Quite aside from the fact that the resumption of military training flies in the face of the State Department report, it is also a violation of a Congressional ban on military ties with Indonesia.
In November, Congress set six conditions which must be met before Indonesia can receive US military assistance. These include ensuring the safe return of East Timorese refugees trapped in militia-controlled camps in West Timor and prosecuting those responsible for atrocities committed in East Timor. The conditions also require Indonesia to prevent militia incursions into East Timor.
None of these conditions have so far been met and Wahid has said that if Wiranto is convicted, he will be pardoned.
Like the Australian Labor and Coalition governments, the US has persisted with the argument that such training will promote a greater awareness of human rights within the Indonesian military and facilitate cooperation between the US and Indonesian military.
Decades of training have failed to produce any such result. Last year's violence in East Timor and the continued atrocities in Aceh and West Papua are testimony to the utter bankruptcy of such a policy.
Human rights organisations such as ETAN have pointed out that it sends "false signals to an Indonesian military still far from civilian control ... The best way to support Indonesian democracy is to follow a policy that makes clear to the Indonesian military that normal military relations are impossible until rights abuses end and the military fully withdraws from politics".