Committee against Torture continues examination of report of Indonesia

CAT
27th session
19 November 2001
Afternoon





Government Delegation Explains Rights and
Protections Given to Detainees,
Punishments Imposed on Those Inflicting Ill-Treatment



The Committee against Torture continued this afternoon its consideration of an initial report of Indonesia, hearing a Government official describe detention procedures, laws prohibiting ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners, and specific cases in which soldiers and military officers had been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for acts of torture, some of them resulting in death.

Nugroho Wisnumurti, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, also said laws were being revised on the Attorney-General's Office, the judiciary, the police, the Ombudsman's office, and numerous other agencies and programmes relating to prevention of torture as part of a five-year programme (2001-2005) outlining priorities for legislation. But he added that the country's "transitional" condition, limited resources, and its vast geographical spread were making it difficult to implement reforms and to establish a culture of respect for human rights.

When the Indonesian report was introduced on Friday, 16 November, Committee members asked about allegations that detainees were often deprived of legal counsel and medical attention; that sexual violence was frequently used as a form of coercion or ill-treatment of women by soldiers and police officers in conflict areas; and that demonstrations were frequently quelled with deadly force.

The panel's formal conclusions and recommendations on the Indonesian report will be issued on Thursday, 22 November, in the afternoon.

Indonesia, as one of the 126 States parties to the Convention against Torture, is required to present periodic summations to the Committee of national efforts to put the Convention's provisions into effect. Government delegations generally appear before the Committee during the consideration of such reports to answer questions and to provide additional information.

The Committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 20 November, to take up its consideration of a third periodic report of Israel.


Discussion

NUGROHO WISNUMURTI, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, responding to questions put by the Committee on Friday, 16 November in the morning, said among other things that recent institutional reforms had included inclusion of a number of the Convention's provisions into Indonesian legislation, among them standards for the treatment of prisoners and detainees. However, the country's current transitional period had its difficulties, and there were problems in putting those and other reforms into effect, and in establishing a culture of respect for human rights. Some recently established institutions, such as the Human Rights Courts, were still being staffed and otherwise put into operational condition, and the vast size of the country and the isolated nature of much of its territory made carrying out reforms problematical.

A long definition of torture was included in a law on human rights passed in 1999, Mr. Wisnumurti said; he cited the exact language, and went on to describe strictures on maltreatment of prisoners contained in a law adopted in 2000. The language of both laws conformed closely with that of the Convention, he said.

Laws were being revised on the Attorney-General's Office, the judiciary, the police, the Ombudsman's office, and numerous other agencies and programmes relating to matters of preventing torture, Mr. Wisnumurti said, as part of a five-year programme (2001-2005) outlining priorities for legislation.

Rules for the duration of police custody varied according to each situation, Mr. Wisnumurti said; the Code of Criminal Procedure allowed detention of 20 days with the option of extension by a competent public prosecutor for a further 40 days; the articles of the Human Rights Courts allowed detention that could not exceed 90 days, except that it could be extended for a further 90 days by the Chief Justice of the Human Rights Court, and for a possible 60 days after that; and detention for the purpose of prosecution was limited to 30 days with possible extensions of 20 days and a further 20 days if deemed necessary by the Chief Justice of the Human Rights Court. Habeas corpus had been incorporated into the Code of Criminal Procedure in 1981, and the Code stated that a suspect had the right to be examined immediately by an investigator and to have his case referred to the public prosecutor, and that a defendant had a right immediately to be tried by a court. Regarding prohibition of the use of a statement obtained under torture, the Code provided that the testimony of a suspect and or witness could only be given without pressure of any form whatsoever.

A report had to be drawn up covering the period from the time of arrest to the time of imprisonment of a suspect, Mr. Wisnumurti said, including information on searches, court verdicts and decisions, and other relevant matters; in addition current practice had the police, the prosecutors and the judges keeping registration of a detainee independently. The Government recognized the need for a centralized registry for detainees. Depriving a detainee of external communication was illegal, and various articles of the criminal code gave extensive rights to legal counsel for detainees. Detainees had the right to legal counsel during interrogations and the right to be visited by their personal doctors.

During states of emergency, Indonesian law specifically prohibited torture, Mr. Wisnumurti said. A law adopted in 2000 stated that persons convicted of perpetrating acts of torture were liable to prison terms of a maximum of 15 years and a minimum of five years. Any official who made use of means of coercion to extract a confession or to provoke a statement was liable to a maximum of four years in prison.

In January 1999, 23 Indonesian soldiers convicted of torturing Acehnese prisoners were sentenced to from one to four years in prison each and were dismissed from the military, Ambassador Wisnumurti said. In April 1999, 11 soldiers, eight of them officers, were convicted of kidnapping, were sentenced to from one to three years in prison each and were dismissed from the military; and in May 2000, 11 members and 13 officers of the armed forces were sentenced to from 6.5 to 9 years, and in one case 10 years, for the kidnapping and killing of an Acehnese man.

In a targeted effort to establish a human rights culture in Indonesia, seminars and workshops were being organized on a regular basis across the country, Mr. Wisnumurti said; these included courses for police, military forces, medical staff, and judges.

In addition to regular inspections of prisons and places of detention carried out by relevant authorities, the Government could provide access to prisons on request for independent bodies such as the National Commission on Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross, he said. The National Commission on Human Rights had the authority to summon a person accused of perpetrating torture, the Human Rights Court had the authority to hear such a case, and the results of any preliminary investigations carried out by the Human Rights Commission were to be submitted to the Office of the Attorney-General. The Code of Criminal Procedure stated that acts of torture must be investigated promptly and impartially.

The Government was strongly committed to resolving alleged cases of torture and extrajudicial killing of three RATA volunteers in December 2000, Mr. Wisnumurti said, and eight people, including four members of the military, had been arrested. However, the four civilians arrested had escaped from police custody, leading to a delay, and a conflict of jurisdictional claims between the National Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the Prosecutor had led to further delays.

An investigation into alleged December 2000 cases of torture in Abepura, in Irian Jaya, had concluded that human rights abuses had in fact taken place and named 15 Irian Jaya police officers believed to be involved, Mr. Wisnumurti said; the report had been continued and further information had been obtained and now the matter had been referred back to the Office of the Attorney-General; further investigation of the cases was now being carried out by a team from that office.

Responding to further questions from the Committee, Mr. Wisnumurti said, among other things, that legal measures indeed had been taken against senior officials involved in alleged cases of torture in Aceh, and that the process was continuing; that steps were being taken to further Government cooperation with non-governmental organizations dedicated to promoting human rights; and that shifting of responsibility for public order and internal security from the military to the police in conflict areas had understandably been problem-plagued, as these were new tasks for the police that had to be carried out in chaotic and difficult situations. As a result there had been "teething problems".



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