Kamis, 11 April 2013

Cebongan Prison tragedy : A human rights prespective


Cebongan Prison tragedy : A human rights prespective
Hafid Abbas ;  A Member of Komnas HAM
JAKARTA POST, 10 April 2013
  

The shocking attack on Cebongan Prison has led to social and political fallout across the nation.

According to the Army, the brutal murders of four prisoners in their cells by a team of armed gunman — the first assault of its kind in Indonesia — were revenge killings perpetrated by 11 commandos assigned to a local Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus) unit.

Military Police investigators have alleged that two of the 11 soldiers tried to stop the attack, but to no avail.

While the openness of the Indonesian Military in compiling its investigation of the incident has won appreciation from both domestic and international communities, from a human rights perspective, however, there are some questions that must be addressed.

First, the attack has greatly damaged the notion of the nation’s penal system as a symbol of human rights protection and the supremacy of law. 

In a democratic society, a prison is a site of a total security and safety where prisoners are fed, educated, given medical care and so on. Prison is a kind of social hospital where all inmates are to be treated for their immediate recovery. The only element of difference is freedom.

The UN General Assembly adopted on Dec. 14, 1990, basic principles for the treatment of prisoners, stating that the responsibility of prisons for the custody of prisoners and for the protection of society against crimes shall be discharged in keeping with the state’s other social objectives and its fundamental responsibility for promoting the well-being and development of all members of society.

The Cebongan tragedy obviously indicates that Indonesian prisons are no longer such safe places. The damage to the nation’s penal system wreaked by the killings will require collective action from the people, the Indonesian Military (TNI), the National Police and the nation’s judicial system to immediately restore conditions to normal.

South African leader Nelson Mandela once said that that you cannot truly know a nation until you have lived inside its jails — as he did, for decades. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.

Let us treat our prisoners with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings.

Second, the attack simply exposed an abuse of power triggered by a misguided notion of military solidarity. Weeks before the Cebongan killings, a group of soldiers attacked the local police headquarters in the Ogan Komering Ulu, South Sumatra. However, deploring such barbaric acts are the tip of the iceberg. There have been triggering factors behind the TNI attacks on the people and other elements of the state apparatus that must be addressed.

The violence in Cebongan and Ogan Komering Ulu indicate an escalation of tension between the National Police and the TNI. This disharmony requires immediate internal reform of the two institutions. Since their separation in 1999, the TNI and the National Police have routinely come into conflict. More delays to these needed reforms will create more tragedies.

The National Police, especially its Densus 88 counterterrorism unit, enjoys extraordinary powers to carry out its mandate. In a democratic society, however, such excessive authority can lead to the death of the ongoing democratic process itself and degrade the promotion and protection of human rights.

Exercise of similar extraordinary powers by the Army’s Special Forces will also lead to the death of democracy and the diminution of human rights — especially since Kopassus has no such authorization or remit.

Third, the Army’s investigation must be supplemented by a joint investigation led by the National Police, the TNI and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). Due process must be followed to ensure the attack is investigated and resolved in an accountable and transparent manner. As mandated by Law No. 39/1999 on human rights and Law No. 26/2000 of Human Rights Courts, Komnas HAM has been given the authority — and responsibility — to investigate and monitor any case of human rights violations.

Finally, this tragedy conveys a message to address comprehensively the presence of low-level street thugs (preman) that has created widespread unrest in our society. Due to massive campaigns of arrest and eradication, there has been a massive outflow of preman to other cities. It appears that Yogyakarta has become one of their new destinations. 

It is now important to prepare a national roadmap to address this issue comprehensively and to declare total war on its roots, which are linked to unemployment and poverty. As Gandhi said, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.”

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