Indonesia's paranoia..

I have to admit that i don't read news much, when i pick up the daily paper on the front porch of the house (i wonder if they throw these papers from the street just like they do in the movies?^^) i usually read the title of the headlines just so that i don't blank stare trying to wake up while sipping my coffee (i love sugarless sumatran black coffee).. That's the thing about me and information, i often only read the information that attracts me, unfortunately most of my attraction is to the graphic advertisements in the edges of the paper (bakaa!)

So the other day when i was dilligently^^ doing my paper assignment for my Humanitarian Law class, i stumbled a very interesting history of Indonesia, its law system, and its paranoia. This is a side of Indonesia I've never heard of. I think it's fine for me to expose this here as the sources where i got this from is over the public internet (External party reports on humanity in Indonesia) so this is not hush hush confidential double-owh-seven stuff n_n

1. I found out this ridiculous fact that although Indonesia has signed the Geneva Conventions, especially the Additional Protocol 3 (Humanitrian protectionism in non-international armed conflicts) it has yet to develop and incorporate a proper set of humanitarian law as intstruments to prosecute humanitarian breaches. Also, in like 1989 Indonesia also signed the UN Convention against torture, yet the only law close to torture that exists is laws against "mistreatment".Unreal!

2. One of the pivoting cases i studied was the happenings of the Aceh incidents, where separatists GAM (Freedom Aceh Movement) wishes to disintegrate from the Republic. These people are what is called insurgents (a group of non state armed forces who has proper line of commando and exercise territorial authority over a certain territory). This usually falls under the Geneva Convention i said above, so both armed individuals and civillians are subjects of the protectionism doctrines that exist. From 1970s to 2005 (signing of the Helsinski Peace Agreement) some 20,000 individuals became casualty to the "atrocities" that happened, where cases of abuse, ill-treatment, rape, casually happened on an every day basis. Happenings exactly like what the US government does also happens here; the apprehension of those suspected to be linked with the rebel groups are taken hostage and thus interogated, sometimes even forced to make false testimonials. Most of the PoW (Prisoners of War) in Aceh were not subjected to fair trial, and there was even a time of paranoia where the National Armed Forces justified their actions to people there by claiming that whoever they impose aggression to is affiliated to the rebel groups. There was this attack on an elementary school that took 59 casualties, which was then tried on the basis of military negligence instead of human right violation; there was even an incident where a witness fleed after allegedly received threats from unknown parties. Insane!

3. From one of the journals i read, there was a tendency in Indonesia's law that occassionaly does not prosecute government official related cases, as there's a paradigm that in the end the state would be disadvantaged, as these cases apparently quite often happens thus it would ruin the credibility of governmenance in Indonesia. I wonder how this is different from the old dictatorship regime led by former President Soeharto that oppressed society and filtered information? And this was a time when there was massacre in Jakarta's northern port and no one else across Indonesia ever knew this happened at the time. And i thought we were in a transitional phase? Agression in Aceh still happens even post peace treaty in 2005, 7 years after the democratic process is claimed to have start!

Women armed division of the GAM forces; Inong Balee

All these years i've judged superpower countries as having silly paranoias, and produce puppet policies. It shocked me to find out my own country was doing this, and i bet some of you knew about this already. What about the others? I still know in some remote areas they even still glorified the old regime. I wonder if they knew at the time people across their province was slaughtered simply because they wanted everyone elese in the country know about the Givernment's rotten closet?

I think we've lots of homework. The scary thing is that this act is systematic, thats why systematic and structural prevention is an absolute necessity. Let's not let history repeat itself..

footnote:
last time i wrote a law article, someone said i didnt have legal sources to back me up, so here it is;
- US State Department, Country Report on Human Rights Practices : Indonesia (2002-2005)
- Official Documents of the Geneva Convention Additional Protocol III 1977
- Amnesty International, Annual Report on Indonesia (2005)
- Journal by Suzannah Linton, Accounting Atrocities in Indonesia (2006)