HONOLULU (Sept. 6) -- A judge sitting on Indonesia's human rights court said he will return home with recommendations on how to strengthen court proceedings after spending this week with international humanitarian law experts connected to tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
"This week makes us more self-confident," said Rudi Muhammad Rizki, one of 10 Indonesian judges participating in discussions at the East-West Center. "We're on the right track."
Rizki, an academic whose selection to the Indonesian Ad Hoc Human Rights Court was among those criticized because they were non-career judges, helped initiate this week's forum. He acknowledges that he and his colleagues are unfamiliar with jurisprudence in international humanitarian law. "This kind of tribunal is new in Indonesia."
Rizki said one of the recommendations will be that all the human rights judges meet with the prosecution before the trial and give attorneys three weeks to amend indictments. The Indonesian court system does not include pre-trials.
The ad hoc trials of Indonesian military and government officials accused of human rights violations in East Timor have been criticized for too few convictions and light sentences.
After spending five days at the East-West Center, the participants, including some of the world's leading forensic war crimes investigators, scholars and human rights activists, will travel to The Hague, Netherlands. The Seminar is co-sponsored by the East-West Center, the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center, and the Human Rights Center of UC Berkeley. Funding was provided by the Open Society Institute, Canadian Human Security Program, Wang Family Foundation and the Berkeley War Crimes Studies Center.
Navanethem Pillay, presiding judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda who was recently elected by the United Nations to the new International Criminal Court, participated in the forum. She said lack of experience in international humanitarian law among judges hampered both the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and for the former Yugoslavia. As a result, trials took much longer in the Rwanda tribunal. "Debate and dialogue on existing jurisprudence is a tremendous opportunity for judges," she said.
Pillay said the two international tribunals, especially Rwanda, also suffered from a lack of resources like the ad hoc court in Indonesia, which has one computer shared by all the judges. However, the international tribunals did not face the same pressures and intimidation surrounding the Indonesian judges.
Rizki, who presided over five of the six convictions brought in the Indonesian trials, said he has been labeled "anti-military" and his life has been threatened by military members who crowd the courtroom.
International observers have credited the Indonesian judges for convicting Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri for crimes against humanity in East Timor. The prosecution in the case against the ranking Indonesian general, now director of military operations in violence-torn Aceh, had asked for his acquittal.
"I respect the independence they (Indonesian judges) are asserting," Pillay said.
Rizki said he will continue to work for stronger legislation to correct deficiencies in the ad hoc court such as including war crimes under the court's jurisdiction and revising minimum sentencing. He will also focus on building a stronger reputation for judicial independence in the ad hoc court.
"This court is under international scrutiny. It reflects on the Indonesian judiciary as a whole," Rizki said.
The Ad Hoc Human Rights Court, established in November 2000 by the Indonesian Parliament, was a response to international outrage over alleged human rights violations in East Timor by the Indonesian military and police, government officials and Timorese militia leaders. The court has completed 12 trials involving 18 defendants. Six convictions have been handed down, including two Indonesian army generals. Now that the 12 trials have been completed, international human rights organizations are again calling on the United Nations to create a new international criminal tribunal to provide accountability for the violence in East Timor.
Rizki said the East Timor trials are over and the next trial will involve alleged Indonesian military involvement in a Muslim activist shooting in 1984.
For more information, contact David Cohen at 808-944-7236 or cohend@eastwestcenter.org or contact Susan Kreifels, East-West Center Media Services coordinator, at 808-944-7176 or kreifels@eastwestcenter.org