[Marinir] AP: Rights groups hail UN move on Indonesian war crimes tribunal

[Yap Hong Gie]

The only mistake Indonesian military may did in the past, was that they were
not as elegant as the US is handling the Iraqi detainees; by "Outsourcing"
Torture ....


http://hrw.org/campaigns/torture/renditions.htm

Renditions and Diplomatic Assurances
"Outsourcing" Torture

With the world's attention trained on abuses of detainees by United States
authorities at the Abu Ghraib prison in Bagdhad, it is easy to overlook the
global dimensions of the problem.

In locations far from the public eye, most often in total secrecy, dozens
and perhaps hundreds of suspects have been transferred from one country to
another, often from Western countries to those in the Middle East or Asia,
but in other cases between countries within a single region. Evidence is
emerging that, in many such cases, the suspects are being tortured.

The global ban on torture includes a ban on sending people-no matter their
alleged crime or status-to any country where they would be at risk of
torture or ill-treatment.

Even if a person is suspected of having committed a terrorist act, it is
illegal to send him or her to a place where there is a risk of torture.

Such transfers, which typically involve no courts or judicial process, have
been referred to as "renditions." The obligation not to transfer a person to
a place where he or she is at risk of torture is known as the principle of
nonrefoulement and is enshrined in numerous international treaties,
including the Convention against Torture. It is a logical extension of the
ban on torture: if authorities are prohibited from directly torturing a
person, it makes sense that they be prohibited from sending a person to a
place where they know or should know that he or she is at risk of torture.

In some cases, governments appear to be transferring people in full
knowledge that torture likely will be used to extract information and
confessions regarding alleged terrorist activities and associations. In
others, governments have justified such transfers with the argument that
their first obligation is not to give safe harbor to terrorists.

In many cases, governments, aware of the legal prohibition on sending
suspects to such countries, seek written guarantees-so-called "diplomatic
assurances"-from authorities in the country concerned that the suspect will
not be tortured if transferred. A growing number of cases, detailed in the
reports and briefings listed on this page, suggest that such guarantees are
insufficient.

There are important reasons why this is case. Security and police
authorities in countries where torture is still practiced routinely
(countries to which many suspected terrorists are sent) deny that torture
occurs at all, making such assurances all but worthless. And the treatment
of such suspects is almost impossible to monitor: torture is illegal and is
practiced in secret, deep within the walls of closed detention facilities,
with no opportunity for independent actors to keep an eye on how authorities
are treating detainees. Indeed, torture has resulted even when the
transferring government has insisted on written guarantees and the right to
monitor suspects' subsequent treatment.

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From: John M Miller <fbp at ...>
Date: Tue Jun 28, 2005  7:25 am ;  Message # 6523
Subject: AP: Rights groups hail UN move on Indonesian war crimes tribunal


Rights groups hail UN move on Indonesian war crimes tribunal

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, AP

JAKARTA, Indonesia, June 28 (AP) - Human rights groups Tuesday hailed a
U.N. panel recommendation that an international tribunal be formed to try
Indonesian military officers accused of violence in East Timor in 1999 and
attacks on the United Nations mission there.

"We agree with the U.N.'s Commission of Experts that continued strong
international involvement is essential to ensure that impunity does not
prevail for the brutal crimes of Indonesia's security forces in East
Timor," said John M. Miller of the New York-based East Timor and Indonesia
Action Network.

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