V. KOMNAS HAM AND ACEH: THE TRACK RECORD

Given Komnas HAM's poor track record in Aceh, it was perhaps not surprising that the observation mission let the Bumi Flora case drop. Since the sharp escalation in violence in Aceh in 1999, Komnas HAM has failed to deliver any concrete results in terms of useful investigations, prosecutions, or even pressure on other government agencies.

In June and August 1998, at the height of its influence and credibility as an independent and critical body, Komnas HAM conducted a survey of human rights abuses that had taken place in Aceh between 1990 and 1998, when Aceh had been formally designated an area of military operations (daerah operasi militer or DOM). It found that gross violations of human rights had been committed by Indonesian government forces, in the form of summary executions, torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detention, rape and sexual assault, and property destruction. It recommended prosecution of those responsible, compensation for the victims, restoration of civilian institutions, ending the culture of impunity within the military; a wholesale review of military law and education, and reallocation of resources between the central and provincial governments.²³ Nothing happened.

Following two major massacres in Aceh in February and May 1999, Komnas HAM issued strong statements concluding that the military approach to the Aceh conflict had only resulted in increased violence, and that new anti-riot teams containing both military and civilian elements were exacerbating the conflict rather than reducing it.²⁴ The statements were forceful, but they had no impact. In July 1999, Komnas HAM recommended to then President Habibie that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission be established specifically for Aceh. Nothing came of it, though not for want of effort by some Komnas HAM members; it was the Habibie government that showed no interest.

On July 30, 1999, however, through Presidential Decision (Kepres) No.88, President Habibie set up a special commission to investigate human rights violations in Aceh, called Komisi Independen untuk Tindak Kekerasan Aceh. Led by an Acehnese woman who was widely known to be a business associate of then Commander of the Armed Forces General Wiranto, the new commission contained two members from Komnas HAM, Mohammad Salim and a retired police commander, Koesparmono Irsan. Its work was controversial: it ended up recommending prosecution of only five cases, out of all the human rights violations that had taken place in Aceh, and none of these were from the worst of the DOM period. To many Acehnese, the commission reinforced the culture of impunity that Komnas HAM had urged ending, even though one of the five cases was eventually brought to trial and low-ranking soldiers found guilty. (Their commander went into hiding and was never prosecuted.) ²⁵

In September 1999, Komnas HAM established a branch office in Aceh, in acknowledgment of the serious human rights violations of the past and present. The office was widely welcomed in Aceh, but it could not act independently of Jakarta, and when the reputation of Komnas HAM in the capital began to slide, the reputation of the Aceh branch went with it.

Up until this point, the conservatives within Komnas HAM, many of whom had been among the first appointees when the commission was established in 1993, had not been particularly active. As pressure began to build around the world for an international tribunal to investigate Indonesian officers and their militia proxies for crimes against humanity in East Timor, the Indonesian government insisted that it could undertake credible investigations and prosecutions itself. Komnas HAM announced that it was setting up a special Commission of Inquiry into the 1999 violence in East Timor and appointed a number of respected human rights activists as members. In January 2000, the Commission produced a hard-hitting and detailed report that recommended dozens of officers and militia leaders for prosecution. The conservatives within Komnas HAM, according to Komnas sources, were furious, and apparently concluded that the forces for change had grown altogether too powerful. From that moment on, they began to more actively obstruct investigations.²⁶

The result was felt in Aceh. It was not as though Komnas HAM had been particularly effective up to that point. But there was a general feeling that its intentions had at least been honorable. From early 2000, it was open to question whether Komnas HAM as a body was interested in seeing any members of the security forces brought to justice. Komnas HAM's actions with respect to the RATA killings were a case in point. The three humanitarian workers were killed in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, on December 6, 2000. By late December, based on the testimony of a fourth worker who managed to escape after witnessing the execution of his colleagues, eight men had been taken into custody. Four were members of the Indonesian army, and four were civilian thugs, led by a well-known military informer named Ampon Thaib. On January 2, 2001, the Aceh branch office of Komnas HAM recommended to the Jakarta office that the RATA killings be considered a serious human rights violations under the terms of Law No.26/2000 and prosecuted accordingly, meaning that Komnas HAM would do the initial investigation. On January 9, Komnas HAM as a whole agreed to take up the case, and appointed Mohammed Salim and Koesparmono, the two men who had been involved in the special commission on Aceh, to establish the Commission of Inquiry. Salim had primary responsibility, but to the great frustration of the Komnas HAM office in Aceh and the local community of nongovernmental organizations, he never acted. Instead, he and other members of Komnas HAM, as well as the Attorney General's office, appeared to accept the police argument that because the police had already initiated an investigation into the case as an ordinary murder, the charges could not be changed - as they would have to be if the case was to be considered a serious human rights violation under the terms of Law No. 26 - without releasing the suspects.²⁷ The argument was faulty, but neither Salim nor the chair of Komnas HAM made any effort to refute it. As they were dithering, the four civilian thugs mysteriously escaped from prison in late March 2001. By January 2002, the four military men had been released as the legal time period for pre-trial detention had been exceeded, and Ampon Thaib, the lead thug, was back as a fully armed and equipped participant in operations of the district military command in Lhokseumawe.²⁸

Given Komnas HAM's record in Aceh, its decision of January 8, 2002 to set up a Commission of Inquiry to look into the Bumi Flora massacre must be treated with skepticism. There is no question that the massacre needs to be investigated by a neutral and independent body. By early 2002, there was growing evidence that Komnas HAM was neither.

23 Komnas HAM, "Pernyataan Komnas HAM Tentang Pelanggaran Hak Asasi Manusia di Aceh Selama Dalam Status Daerah Operasi Militer," September 2, 1998.

24 Komnas HAM, "Derita Aceh, Kapan Akan Berakhir," Warkat Warta, 2000

25 Twenty-four soldiers were convicted in May 2000 of the murder in July 1999 of a religious leader named Teungku Bantaqiah and more than fifty of his students and followers. See Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, "Indonesia: Aceh Trial -- Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Call for Full Accountability," New York and London, May 17, 2000.

26 Human Rights Watch interview, Jakarta, August 2001.

27 For additional details, see Human Rights Watch, "The War in Aceh," Vol.13. No.4 (c), August 2001, p.33.

28 Human Rights Watch interviewed a woman whose house had been raided on January 12, 2001 by Ampon Thaib, an associate named Ramadan, and four operatives who identified themselves as intelligence operatives for the district military command (KODIM).