Police torture of criminal suspects is commonly accepted in Indonesia. This is the case whether they are suspects of insurgency and violence, or suspects of petty theft. In fact, the police are even known to harass and assault innocent civilians.
At the beginning of the year, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) reported that two men had been detained and tortured over permission letters to buy cows in South Sumatera on 23 November 2005. Although the men had the necessary paperwork, police officers from Buay Runjung harassed and assaulted them.
In September 2005, police officers from Belitung Timur arrested a man on mistaken identity, and tortured him so that he would confess to the theft of gold worth an estimated USD 13 000 and a generator. They later realised their mistake and released him, after which he was taken to hospital and treated for his injuries.
In January 2006, police from West Jakarta arrested two men on drug charges, and held them in custody at a hotel room rather than the police station. A few days later, one of the men died in hospital. The autopsy found that his death was caused by a violent blow to the head by a blunt object and that his body was covered in bruises.
These instances of abuse by state officers blatantly violate the right of the victims to be free from torture and cruel punishment, as provided for in the Convention against Torture, which Indonesia is a party to. The lack of action taken by state authorities to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of this abuse further violates the victims’ rights to effective remedies under the CAT and the ICCPR, which Indonesia ratified in September 2005.
Indonesia’s international obligations hold little meaning to its government however. Indonesia ratified the Convention against Torture in 1998; eight years later, torture is still not a punishable offence under the Indonesian Penal Code. While torture is considered a crime against humanity under Law No. 26 of 2000 in the Human Rights Court Act, the penal code does not define the act of torture and has no specific provisions for the prosecution of torture. At present, torture is treated in the same way as the ordinary maltreatment between civilians. Furthermore, there are no provisions for the compensation of victims and no complaint mechanisms through which abuse can be reported.
The lack of effective legislation prohibiting torture and other cruel treatment has led to insensitivity amongst judicial officers and others. For instance, on 17 May 2006 the Central Sulawesi district court sentenced eight torture victims to nine year prison terms for maltreatment and murder of police officers, even though they retracted their confessions during the trial, saying they were forcibly obtained. The victims were able to give details of their torture as well as show their injuries. Furthermore, they had made a complaint to the police regarding their torture prior to the trial. None of this was taken into account by the judge, nor was there any attempt to investigate the torture complaint.
In the rare cases when such complaints of torture are investigated, the findings are usually not made public. Furthermore, the only action taken against the errant police officers are disciplinary. For example, they may be transferred or fined a small sum. This is deeply offensive and takes away from the gravity of acts of torture.
Indonesia is a country with many past human rights abuses, including disappearances, extrajudicial killing and torture. These are perpetuated by state forces as well as sectarian warfare. It is not possible for Indonesia to extricate itself from such violence until the rule of law is effectively established within the country and the perpetrators of abuse, state and civilian, are held accountable. The enforcement of anti-torture legislation, in line with the principles of the CAT, is therefore essential.
The only response made by the Indonesian government to critiques of its domestic law regarding torture is that after the revision of the penal code, all loopholes will be filled. However, the AHRC is concerned that the penal code has been under revision for more than a decade. How much longer must victims of torture and ill treatment wait to seek redress? If the government is indeed serious about its international obligations, and genuinely wants to achieve peace and democracy in the country, it must immediately take steps to introduce a new law on torture. Prior to Indonesias election to the new UN Human Rights Council, numerous pledges were made to the international community regarding the promotion and implementation of human rights standards. It is now time to make good on those pledges, beginning with a law on torture. All human rights and other groups should work towards this.
