REPORT THE PRACTICE OF TORTURE IN ACEH AND PAPUA 1998-2007 with an annex on the situation of human rights in Timor Leste jayapura • jakarta november 2007 SUBMITTED BY Office for Justice and Peace of Jayapura Imparsial-Jakarta Progressio Timor Leste The Synod of the Christian Evangelical Church in Papua Franciscans International C O N T E N T S Contents ..................................................................................................................................................................3 Foreword by Chris Sidoti.........................................................................................................................................5 Glossary....................................................................................................................................................................9 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................7 1.1 Explanation of torture and other inhumane acts.................................................................................................7 1.2 Signature and Ratification of the Convention....................................................................................................8 1.3 Responsibility of the government of Indonesia after ratification ......................................................................13 2. The Success and Failure of the Government of Indonesia to implement the Committee’s recommendations in 2002.....................................................................................................................................15 3. Criticisms of the Government of Indonesia’s response to the Concluding Observation in relation to the GOI Initial Report................................................................................................................................................24 4. Criticism of the Supplementary Report of the Indonesian Government (2005) relating to the situation between 2001-2006...............................................................................................................................................41 5. Torture in Aceh .................................................................................................................................................51 5.1 Background: historical context........................................................................................................................51 5.2. Cases of Torture in Aceh 1998 – 2006............................................................................................................52 List of regulations in the Civil Emergency phase 1 .................................................................................................69 6. Torture in Papua ...............................................................................................................................................79 6.1 Background: historical context .........................................................................................................................79 6.2 Cases of torture during the period of 1998-2007 .............................................................................................80 6.2.1 Cases of torture during 1998 .........................................................................................................................80 6.2.2 Cases of torture during 1999 .........................................................................................................................83 6.2.3. Cases of torture during 2000 ........................................................................................................................83 6.2.4 Cases of torture 2001.....................................................................................................................................85 6.2.5 Cases of torture during 2003 .........................................................................................................................86 6.2.6 Cases of torture during 2004 .........................................................................................................................90 6.2.7 Cases of torture during 2005 .........................................................................................................................90 6.2.8 Cases of torture during 2006 .........................................................................................................................92 6.2.9. Cases of torture during 2007 ........................................................................................................................95 6.3 Pattern of cases .................................................................................................................................................95 7. Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................................97 8. Recommendations .............................................................................................................................................99 Annex A................................................................................................................................................................100 Timor Leste .........................................................................................................................................................100 1. Systematic use of torture...................................................................................................................................100 2. Perpetrators of torture.......................................................................................................................................101 3. Patterns in use of torture...................................................................................................................................101 4. Was torture state policy?...................................................................................................................................102 5. Who was targeted?............................................................................................................................................103 6. Torture in 1999 ...............................................................................................................................................105 7. Impunity in Indonesia for torture committed in Timor Leste ........................................................................106 Annex B................................................................................................................................................................108 Annex C ...............................................................................................................................................................111 2 F O R E W O R D In May 1998 the Indonesian people rose up and overthrew their military dictator of more than 30 years. It was, without doubt, an extraordinary achievement, secured by the Indonesian people themselves without the complication of foreign assistance. The military backed Suharto New Order regime had been solidly entrenched and its president prided himself on being the grand old man of Asia Pacific politics. Yet it disappeared almost overnight. Indonesia embarked on a process of reformasi, literally not mere reform but reformation, the complete restructuring of society. Overthrowing the Suharto regime, as difficult as that was, has proved far easier than accomplishing reformasi. Bringing reformation to Indonesia was never going to be easy. Indonesia has the fourth largest population in the world. Its 240 million people are both highly concentrated and widely dispersed. Half of them, around 120 million people, live on the relatively small island of Java. The other half, another 120 million people, are spread through Indonesia’s other 6000 inhabited islands, running 5000 km east to west and 1770 km north to south. By any standard, the challenge of reformasi was enormous and enormously complex. More than that, the political and military opponents of reformasi were powerful and entrenched. Suharto was gone but the military that had underpinned his rule was not. On the contrary the generals were well embedded in the political and economic systems. They controlled large parts of the economy through a special form of military-industrial complex and large parts of the land and people through force of arms. The military had ruled Indonesia with an iron fist since 1965 and was not going to retire easily to unfamiliar life in the barracks. In discussing one area of human rights, freedom from torture, this report to the Committee Against Torture shows how entrenched the military have been and how hard the work of reformasi is. The military’s determination to resist reformasi was evident in its first significant defeat, the ending of the occupation of East Timor. Indonesia’s first post Suharto president, B J Habibie, was compromised by his past association with Suharto – he was Suharto’s last vice president. His presidency was not a success and he was eventually rejected by the electorate. Nonetheless, he should be remembered and honoured for having set in train the process that led to the ending of the occupation of East Timor. But there was a warning here too. The