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JP Editorial: The US and our generals [Comment on impunity]
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Tapol
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Nov 05, 2009 07:19 PST
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From Joyo
[Comment: The Jakarta Post can justifiably claim that there is such a
right as the right to travel, but it should not forget that there are
many, perhaps countless Indonesian generals who have been involved over
the past four decades in gross human rights abuses in Indonesia
(1965-66), East Timor, West Papua and Aceh, for which none has paid the
price of facing a court of law. It's called impunity.
Perhaps some of the generals might even be wise in their own interests
not to do too much travelling abroad for fear of finding themselves
under arrest and behind bars. With impunity so widespread, the safest
thing for these men is to stay at home, taking the cue from Suharto who
never travelled abroad during his years of retirement.
The reluctance of some countries to allow free entry to Indonesian
generals is no doubt prompted by the recognition that they could be
letting in people who hands are stained with the blood of Indonesians,
Timorese, Papuans and Acehnese. TAPOL]
The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Editorial: The US and our generals
The failure of two Indonesian generals – Lt. Gen. Sjafrie
Sjamsoeddin and Maj. Gen. Pramono Edi Wibowo – to obtain visas
to accompany President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to the Sept.
23-Oct. 1, 2009 Group of 20 Summit in Pittsburgh, the United
States, was a slap in our government’s face, as it was unable to
give assurance that government officers, including soldiers of
the state apparatus, were eligible and problem-free.
So, what shall we do to prevent such a ban on our government
officers’ overseas trips in the future?
The US government indeed has the right to impose such policies,
which prevent “problematic officers” of foreign countries from
crossing its borders. And the US rejection of both generals’
visa application only adds to the list of Indonesian generals
being badly treated abroad in connection with their alleged
involvement in past human right abuses.
On May 29, 2009, a police detective knocked on former (Jakarta)
governor Sutiyoso’s hotel room door in Sydney, Australia, and
asked Sutiyoso to voluntarily appear at the inquest into the
five Australian journalists shot in 1975 in Balibo, in
Indonesia’s former East Timor province, by a squad from
Indonesian Special Forces of which (then) Capt. Sutiyoso was a
member.
Another was the 1994 in absentia trial in Boston, the United
States, of Sintong Panjaitan over a lawsuit filed by an East
Timorese, whose family were victims of the 1991 shooting
incident in Dili, East Timor.
Sintong (who was commander of the Udayana Regional Military
Command, which also oversaw East Timor, at the time of the
incident) was studying at a Boston university at the same time
as the trial.
Up till now, there have been no official statement nor
confirmation issued by the US government regarding their
rejection of both generals’ visa application, but many believe
that it had something to do with their, or their institutions’,
alleged human rights abuses in the past.
Sjafrie, currently serving as secretary-general of the Defense
Ministry, was associated with the 1998 kidnapping of student
activists, while Pramono is commander of the Army’s Special
Forces (Kopassus), elements of which were involved in the
kidnapping of the activists. Sjafrie had never been prosecuted,
while the Kopassus soldiers involved in the kidnapping of the
activists had been tried in court and convicted.
While Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro has announced a plan
to specifically clarify Sjafrie’s visa refusal with the US
government, the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Djoko
Santoso was quick to deny that Pramono had been subject to the
travel ban issued by the US government, as the Kopassus chief is
scheduled to deliver a speech at the Pentagon this week.
A lesson learned from the latest visa rejection cases and a
number of travel bans issued against Indonesian generals,
especially by the US government, it is very obvious that any
past human rights violations or abuses allegedly committed by
Indonesian officers and generals which remain unsolved, or which
settlement fail to meet the universal sense of justice, will
continue to be the subject and grounds for foreign countries to
prohibit and prevent certain of our citizens from entering their
countries.
Freedom, including the liberty to travel to any country without
obstacle, is everyone’s granted right as a human being. And ones
whose rights to such are denied cannot declare themselves free
men.
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