Indonesia: the land of a million political prisoners
By James Balowski
Political trials have become regular events in Indonesia. Thousands of the regime's opponents — communists, radical nationalists, students, Muslims and labour activists — have been tried for subversion and other political "crimes". The recent arrests of People's Democratic Party (PRD) members and other pro-democracy activists, who are to be tried for allegedly inciting the July 27 riots in Jakarta, are the most recent example of how the regime silences its critics.
The New Order regime came to power in 1965 after Major-General Suharto and right-wing military officers used the pretext of an alleged "coup" by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) to launch one of the most organised slaughters in modern history. Within four months, as many as 1 million communists and left wing sympathisers were killed.
Hundreds of thousands of others were accused of being involved in what came to be named the G30S/PKI (September 30 Movement/PKI) affair and detained in a vast number of prisons, hastily prepared detentions centres, work camps and military units. Official estimates of the number of arrested tapols (an acronym for political prisoner) vary between 600,000 and 750,0000.
The military hastily established the notorious intelligence body, Kopkamtib, to administer the arrest, interrogation and trials of tapols. Although it was officially dissolved in the late '80s, its role has been taken over by an equally repressive body, Bakorstanas, which is now overseeing the PRD arrests and trials.
Kopkamtib classified tapols into three categories: "A", prisoners awaiting trial for alleged involvement in the G30S/PKI affair; "B", those unable to be charged for lack of evidence; and "C", prisoners described as "awaiting release". Western researchers have pointed out that according to Kopkamtib's guidelines, Suharto — who had prior knowledge of the coup and had met a key plotter, Colonel Latief, the night before — would have been placed in Category A!
Although most were released by the late '70s — many never having been tried or even charged — even today they face discrimination and harassment. Their children and close relatives are stigmatised. Once described by a human rights lawyer as the "civil dead", there are around 1.3 million ex-tapols in Indonesia today.
Conditions of detention
G30S/PKI tapols were held under intolerable conditions — inadequate food, no bedding, no access to friends or relatives, overcrowding, no recreational activity (other than reading the Bible or Koran), no provision of reading or writing materials, radio or newspapers. They were also denied access to legal protection and left in complete ignorance of their status. Similar conditions exist in Indonesian prisons today. Tapols in particular are often detained for long periods while they await trial in cramped, dirty and isolated cells even though the state has yet to prove a case against them.
Indonesia has signed, but not ratified, the 1987 UN Convention Against Torture. Nor is it party to other international treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The US State Department in its 1992 country report concluded that in Indonesia "torture and mistreatment of criminal suspects, detainees, and prisoners are common, and the legal protections are violated by the government".
Torture is routinely used to elicit confessions for use at trial, to punish an uncooperative subject and, in political cases, to obtain information on the activities of suspected government opponents. It is also used to intimidate and frighten prisoners and as an example to others who might consider opposing the regime.
Forms of torture employed include electric shock, beating and whipping, sexual assault, food depravation, solitary confinement, cigarette burns, threats and mock executions. The "dread" of impending torture is also exploited. G30S/PKI tapols have described dark rooms jammed with people, where they are forced to wait while every so often, a prisoner would be taken away only to be returned hours later, battered, burned and often unconscious. They are also forced to listen to or witness the torture of other prisoners, their children or spouses.
At trial, "confessions" elicited under torture are invariably accepted as evidence by courts.
Since coming to power, Suharto has gone to great lengths to convince people that the regime respects the rule of law. The reality however, has been quite the opposite. Indonesia's criminal code, enacted in 1981, formally established judicial independence and the concept of separation of powers, and it includes some mechanisms to prevent the unlawful arrest and ill-treatment of suspects.
In practice, however, obstacles such as lack of counsel, consultations between judges and the military and the control of the appointment of judges by the government ensure that judges have a strong bias against defendants. Guilty until proved innocent is the rule.
Those who seek to exercise their legal rights are often subjected to harassment and threats of rearrest and torture. Lawyers also have been targets of intimidation. Direct military interference in the courts is particularly evident in political trials and in regions where there is a large military presence such as East Timor, Aceh and West Papua.
Anti-subversion laws
Even formal protections can easily be sidestepped by charging suspects under the Anti-Subversion Laws, which carry a maximum penalty of death and prohibit a wide and largely undefined array of political activity. These laws essentially allow the military to act as if there is a state of national emergency and to do whatever they like in political cases.
After gaining independence from the Dutch, the Sukarno government adopted the colonial legal system in its entirety. In effect, colonial law remained in force with changes only to the names: "the king" became "the president" and "the kingdom" became "the republic". Even the repressive"Hate-Sowing Articles", which were enacted against the rising nationalist movement, became part of Indonesian law.
Suharto expanded these laws in 1969 to penalise any activity deemed to be inconsistent with, distort, undermine or deviate from the state ideology of Pancasila (as defined by the government). In a report on the Indonesian legal system, the Lawyers Committee For Human Rights described the law as a vague and broadly defined statute which can be used whenever the regime wishes to persecute someone for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom, assembly, association and religion. Amnesty International estimates that more than 150 prisoners of conscience have been convicted and are being held under these and related laws.
Although most of the leadership of the PKI and its mass organisations were executed soon after capture, other G30S/PKI tapols were kept alive for the military courts. According to the regime, there were a total of 1014 trials; as far as is known, none of the accused were acquitted.
Political trials of students were used following crackdowns in 1974 and 1978-79 to quell a spate of large student demonstrations. But in recent years, defendants have used political trials as a forum in which to publicly criticise the regime. This has taken the form of demonstrations and pickets outside courts and disruption of court proceedings.
A provision inherited from Dutch colonial law also allows defendants to present a speech, in which they can refute the charges against them prior to sentencing. These have been used not just to argue legal issues, but to make more wide-ranging political statements. Some, such as those by student leaders tried in Bandung in 1979, have become virtual classics of the opposition movement.
Recent trials
In January 1994, the chair of the Pijar Foundation, Nuku Suleiman, was tried for insulting the head of state after allegedly distributing a sticker which accused Suharto of "masterminding" a number of killings, including the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre.
Despite a huge security presence, the trial drew large crowds of supporters. Nuku remained defiant, and the defence drew upon an impressive array of well-known opposition figures and legal experts as witnesses. The court resorted to preventing a defence witness from appearing and sentenced Nuku to four years in what was described by Amnesty International as a "show trial".
In one of the biggest trials of student activists since 1978, in March 1994, 21 students were charged with insulting Suharto during a demonstration at the parliament the previous December. Students actively disrupted the proceedings; hundreds crowded into the courtrooms, climbing fences on their way in, unrolling placards and banners and shouting slogans.
Once inside, they sat with their feet on the backs of chairs, smoked and chatted loudly amongst themselves. While the court was in session they stood on chairs, jeered the prosecutors and judges, and cheered the defendants. During the reading of charges by the public prosecutor, cries of "Hang Suharto" were heard. Pickets were held in front of the court buildings throughout the trials, turning the courthouse grounds into a free-speech zone. The sentences eventually handed down were relatively light, all 21 getting only six months.
Following the banning of three major news weeklies in June 1994, three members of the Independent Journalists Association were tried for producing a publication without a government licence.
For the first time in a political trial, the first to be tried, Tri Agus Susanto Siswomihardjo, openly expressed support for the struggle in East Timor, saying: "For me, this trial is a gift of gold for the 50th anniversary of Indonesian independence, coming on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Suharto regime and the 20th anniversary of the Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor, an illegal act that is still not recognised by the UN and the international community".
His statements drew a chorus of applause from supporters in the public gallery. Although Tri Agus was sentenced to two years, the protests were such that judges were forced to leave the court before the session closed.