INDONESIA
Justice On Trial
November 2000 - 31'
REPORTER: MARK DAVIS
It`s the easiest job in journalism to find a victim of Suharto and his army of killers. Every back alley in Jakarta reveals a story of the dead, the maimed, the missing.
IBU TUTI, MOTHER OF DISAPPEARED YOUTH: From a distance, when I hear the guitar of the people on the roadside, I think of my son. He used to sing too.
Today, Ibu Tuti`s son is just one more stern face on yet another missing poster in Jakarta. Her son simply disappeared in 1996, when the military police arrested him during a crackdown against the emerging democratic movement. He wasn`t well-known, she wasn`t well- connected - there was nothing she could do.
IBU TUTI: At that time, I didn`t know anything about the law or getting legal aid, and so I went to see a clairvoyant with some friends. The clairvoyant saw that my son was still alive.
Under Suharto, a clairvoyant was as good as any other form of redress. Today, not much has changed. A new government is in place, democratically elected but without the central principle of democracy - a legal system to provide justice, or at least an answer to a mother`s simple question.
IBU TUTI: I am an Indonesian citizen. The law should be equal, whether you are an official, or with stars, or just an ordinary person. Those people know more about the law than I do. But I should have the right to know whether my son is dead or alive.
In a city with almost daily protests against the apparent legal immunity of former dictator Suharto and his military cronies, a dance protest is a new twist, but the raw politics are never far away. These are the young people that the military tortured, raped and imprisoned in their final attempts to cling to power. They were the army`s greatest enemy then, and now.
Bass guitarist Pranowo and drummer Jacobus Kurniawan were imprisoned for nearly four years until released by the new gov. Many of their friends, including Ibu Tuti`s son, were killed or simply disappeared - actions which Suharto and his army may yet come to regret.
Suharto now appears untouchable, protected from his people by these police and soldiers who surround his house. But it`s a barrier which Jacobus Kurniawan may break through.
The government`s legal action against Suharto has collapsed, but today, Suharto`s prisoner may be on the verge of doing what the state has been unable to do - drag him and his generals into the justice system.
Jacobus and eight others from the formerly banned People`s Democratic Party, the PRD, are launching the country`s first private legal action against Suharto and 11 generals for false imprisonment and human rights abuses.
REPORTER: Jacobus, can you forgive Suharto? Can you for give the intelligence officers and the army?
JACOBUS KURNIAWAN, PRD: It`s not about forgive or not. It`s about how to build legal system, how to build democratisation process in Indonesia. So I repeat, this is not about revenge, but this is our task, our duty, as one of the political forces in Indonesia who have responsibility to the people.
The calm domesticity of this group house-cum-party headquarters belies the trauma that these young people have endured. 58 members of the PRD were arrested in `96 for daring to form a political party. 28 of them never returned. The ones that did survived the most horrific torture. 13 were imprisoned for subversion.
Today, the former inmates are preparing to return to the same Jakarta courthouse where their show trial had been held - this time not with fear, but with hope.
JACOBUS KURNIAWAN: Our case is the last case to attack Suharto because of his political
crime after Suharto trial was banned by judge. This is the last chance.
This is the third time the PRD lawyers have presented this case. Like many controversial cases in Indonesia, it has been subjected to controversial adjournments.
PRD LAWYER, ADDRESSING COURT: We would like to express our disappointment and strong protest on the way this hearing has been conducted.
A month ago, the PRD case was regarded as little more than a sideshow, but since then, the state case against Suharto has collapsed after the judges surprisingly ruled him unfit for trial - just one of a string of controversial judgments this year.
What appeared to be watertight cases of corruption and embezzlement brought by the government against military and business figures linked to the old regime have all failed in the courts - failed with unrelenting and suspicious regularity.
PRD LAWYER: Although pessimistic, we are slightly confident that the honourable judges will not be willing to become the stooges of authority, let alone becoming an extension of the power of the old regime, whose power has spread into many sectors and has started to hit back at the forces of democracy.
On its merits, the PRD case is strong - with natural pessimism, the lawyers have rated their chances as at least 50-50. But across town, a more informed group would provide even more sober odds.
In the government`s ongoing battle to assert the rule of law over the army and the old regime, this is probably the most important group that the government has established in the 12 months since it came to power - the Joint Inquiry Team Into Corruption.
Its brief is to investigate compromised members of the judiciary. Disturbingly, it has confirmed suspicions not just about minor courts, but about every level of the system, including the Supreme Court itself.
Inquiry member H.S. Dillon.
REPORTER: What are these men accused of doing? What are these judges accused of doing?
DR H.S. DILLON: They are simply accused of very straightforwardly asking for money, getting money and issuing verdicts in favour of those who have given them money. A very blatant exercise in what you would say would be dispensing justice to the highest bidder.
A legal action by the Supreme Court prevents inquiry chairman Adi Andoyo from detailed comment, but his impressions about the state of the justice system are clear enough.
REPORTER: What confidence do you have in the police?
ADI ANDOYO, INQUIRY CHAIRMAN: I have no confidence.
REPORTER: What confidence do you have in the judges?
ADI ANDOYO: In the judge is not so big - not so big.
REPORTER: And the prosecutors?
ADI ANDOYO: Prosecutors, also not so big.
Andoyo now believes that corruption amongst judges, including the most senior in the land, is now so endemic, it will take a generation to clean up the courts.
REPORTER: That`s a very depressing analysis, given your position.
ADI ANDOYO: Yes. I`m not optimistic - on the contrary, I`m pessimistic.
That prognosis is particularly unsettling for H.S. Dillon.
Dillon is also a senior member of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission. He knows that without courts to prosecute them in, the dozens of cases he is now preparing against the military are all at stake - as is the stability of a fledgling democracy.
REPORTER: If you and others don`t succeed - which it doesn`t look like you`re going to at the moment...
DR H.S. DILLON: I agree. Than that means we will be in this mess for quite some time to come. Then you will see I think something akin to Russia.
REPORTER: Meaning?
DR H.S. DILLON: Meaning lawlessness, what my colleague said two weeks ago - there is govermentlessness right now. You don`t see any effective government. What you`re seeing right now is this tug of war between the army and the President.
And it`s a tug of war with Dillon in the middle.
TV SHOW PRESENTER: My first guest in the studio tonight is Dr H.S. Dillon, who would be well-known to our viewers as a specialist in economics, agriculture and human rights.
It`s probably more his expertise in rice production than human rights that guarantees Dillon a berth on many Indonesian television programs. But his high public profile is now affording some slim protection in the dangerous challenge he is currently posing to the Indonesian military.
Dillon is one of the main investigators of Indonesian military figures accused of war crimes in East Timor, many of them still serving officers. It`s an investigation that poses the greatest threat yet to the military and the greatest test to the integrity of the legal system.
Dillon has now finalised the case files dealing with military atrocities in East
Timor, and the Attorney-General has accepted 22 of them for prosecution. They`ll be the first major state prosecutions against the military and police - a watershed in the battle to assert civil supremacy against the still-powerful armed forces of the old regime.
DR H.S. DILLON: If we can get a few convictions early in here, then this might turn the tide against them. I don`t think there will be that much of a resistance once we get some of the generals really indicted, and convicted, more than that. That is why I told you that it was going to be difficult to convict them unless we have a cleaner judiciary. And we are doing that on the corruption side to try to get the judiciary before we can get these human rights cases to court.
The legal system has now moved to the centre stage of Indonesian politics. Demonstrations are occurring not at parliament, but at the Attorney-General`s office. And the crowd here aren`t just calling for Suharto`s neck - they`re targeting the justice system and its highest officers.
Attorney-General Mazuki Darusman is in the centre of the storm.
MAZUKI DARUSMAN, INDONESIAN ATTORNEY-GENERAL: The public perception of all this is that the legal system has deep-seated problems, in terms of competence, in terms of professionalism and susceptibility to inducements. This is not a secret, but then once you stat looking into this, it`s not that easy to prove. So you`re labouring under these kinds of conditions, and you just have to make the best of it.
But making the best of it may not be enough to ensure his survival or the survival of the civilian government.
REPORTER: The President is looking increasingly frustrated by this. Is he able to achieve what wants through the law?
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: I think he`s always been able to reflect the mood of the country. And when he goes out to say that the courts are compromised, it`s nearly a reflection of the perception of the public.
(Addressing meeting) He said that the judges are rotten and if they are, then the whole system is. How can investors come in? The President himself said this.
Despite launching a dozen high-profile cases, Darusman has only had one notable victory in the last 12 months - Suharto`s youngest son Tommy, convicted and sentenced to prison in a watertight embezzlement case. But to the public`s incredulity, he`s still walking free. Darusman is meeting with his staff, trying to ensure a prompt arrest.
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: Can it be finished in two weeks? (Men smirk)
It would seem the wheels of justice turn too slowly to catch any of the Suhartos.
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: Why? Are we overloaded? They`re not doing it?
MAN: We`re being played with.
SECOND MAN: Played with.
MAN: Well, if you want to fix things, where do you start unravelling all the threads? (Laughs)
REPORTER: What exactly are we talking about here - judges and prosecutors, are we?
DR H.S. DILLON: Prosecutors. His own prosecutors - those are under him, his staff. They`re Attorney-General`s staff. You see, because the Attorney-General`s staff, you should know, has been one of the most corrupt offices in Indonesia. Oh yeah. We are now just concentrating on the justice system, but I`ve always reminded them you can`t have a corrupt judiciary here without corrupt prosecutors, without corrupt legal defenders, all these lawyers.
REPORTER: So it`s not just the judges that are concerned?
DR H.S. DILLON: No, no, no. the judges are the people who finally hand the verdict. But you have had this whole system where people have been selling not justice, but selling verdicts.
REPORTER: So for the Attorney-General, his problem starts in his own...
DR H.S. DILLON: Very much so, very much so. You should know that he doesn`t sit in his office so much because he doesn`t trust also the people around him anyway. And this office was electronically eavesdropped.
REPORTER: This is extraordinary, isn`t it?
DR H.S. DILLON: Oh it is. Which is why you see me with nothing to do with the Attorney- General`s office, being with him almost every couple of days and all that.
REPORTER: What do his staff think of him, or having to work for him and having to prosecute cases...
DR H.S. DILLON: I don`t think most of the staff like him, because what you should by this time realise is that most of the government officials, most of the bureaucracy, do not want things to change. Then the party is over. They want the party to continue.
The Attorney-General is facing more than just an explosion of demonstrations - a month ago, his office was bombed.
The bombing at Darusman`s office happened after Dillon`s human rights commission delivered it him the case files dealing with atrocities in East Timor. To the surprise of the military and members of his own department, Darusman announced that prosecutions would follow.
DR H.S. DILLON: The prosecutors in the Attorney-General`s office have never really seriously dealt with gross violations of human rights, and neither are they very happy doing this, because there is nothing in it for them. And if anything, they could get a bullet in the head. So I think the bomb that was detonated in the A-g`s office was just meant to send them a warning - "Don`t play around with us."
In the past three months, there have been 13 blunt warnings across Jakarta, virtually every bomb blast on the eve of a Suharto trial or after an announcement of legal investigations against military figures.
This blast at the Jakarta Stock Exchange was the most outrageous - 30 injured, 15 killed, nearly all of them drivers simply waiting by their cars. Another complete mystery, according to the police chief.
The President had to sack the police chief to force an investigation. The arrests that followed netted the two main suspects dressed in civilian clothes, but who turned out to be explosive experts from a special forces unit of the army.
REPORTER: Do you believe the military was officially involved in the bombing at the Stock Exchange?
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: Elements of the military have been established to have been involved in this.
REPORTER: This is an incredible situation, where you`ve got your own military that are bombing and destabilising the government.
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: Yes. I mean, we`re still going through the transition period. But at the moment, the military are under control.
REPORTER: It`s under control?
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: It is under control.
REPORTER: But they`re bombing...
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: But there are elements that... The military as an institution is under control, and it`s definitely following the politics of the gov. But you still have these kinds of incidents happening because of dissatisfaction, pockets of dissatisfaction within the military.
Today, Darusman is driving into the heart of those pockets of dissatisfaction.
At the presidential palace, the new commanders of the armed forces are being sworn in.
REPORTER: How do you feel, being around the military yourself now? Do you trust these people or not?
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: They`re good - basically they`re good. 70% are good. 80% are good. It`s just some of them that are...they need to be shunted aside, yeah?
REPORTER: And will that happen?
MAZUKI DARUSMAN: That will happen. That will happen. Soon enough.
But it won`t happen today, and probably not soon enough to save the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia`s first democratically elected president in more than three decades.
It`s a humiliating day for the ailing President. 50 generals virtually threatened a coup if Wahid went ahead with his choice of appointing a well-known reformer as the army`s new chief of staff. The army got their man and Wahid`s presidency was dealt yet another painful blow. At his side stands a Vice-President who is busily courting the military to ensure her ascendancy and their survival.
The President and his Attorney-General face a Herculean task in the coming months in their legal showdown with the military. All they have to rely on for support is the law and the courts, and that`s not much.
The army chief of staff departing today has he honour of being one of the prime suspects in a counterfeit currency ring. And under his command, the army are suspected of bombing the Attorney-General`s office and the Stock Exchange.
REPORTER: There`s a series of bombings here, though, and the army stands accused of that...
OUTGOING ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: This is not a good time for me, OK?
His replacement appears unfazed by the challenges that lie ahead.
REPORTER: The reputation of the army has taken a serious blow in recent months, with accusations that they`re behind the terror and bombing campaign...
NEW ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: (Scoffs) No, that`s just two soldiers.
REPORTER: Just two soldiers? Just two soldiers who killed 10 men and wounded 20 others? Right.
CHIEF OF STAFF: They`re just two soldiers who had criminal links, and of course, they`re also Acehnese. So there`s a relation with the ATI Liberation.
REPORTER: There`s also a relation with the army, though.
CHIEF OF STAFF: No, they are soldiers. They are soldiers.
REPORTER: Are you taking this seriously? If this is the army that is bombing the state...
CHIEF OF STAFF: (Laughs) Of course, one of the member of the army, but not the army.
REPORTER: When people accuse the army of being involved in this type of destabilising activity, are you going to take any action on these allegations?
CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, I think we have to look at it, yes.
REPORTER: But are you going to remove officers who you suspect are engaged in acts against the state?
CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, I don`t care what is the rank of them. If they did some things not correctly or indisciplinary, then I of course will do some things to them, the sanctions for them.
REPORTER: Do you have any immediate plans?
CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, not for the time being, because I just took over, you know?
A commander with enough stomach would have plenty to investigate in this room - multimillionaire generals, career torturers and a few modern-day bombers. But for now, the biggest threat to this group is the Attorney-General and his list of 22 accused of atrocities in East Timor. If those cases succeed, there`ll be thousands more to follow from within Indonesia - if they succeed.
Jakarta police headquarters. The police are in a quandary. On a presidential order, they have arrested a notorious East Timor militia leader. A judge has overturned the order and a release is expected any moment.
But the surprise on this day is not to see the militia leader walk out of police headquarters, but another of the 22 accused by the Attorney-General of criminal atrocities in East Timor. And he didn`t walk out of a cell, but from an executive office.
REPORTER: So you can be on that list and still work in the civil service, obviously, yeah?
Timbul Silaen, the former chief of police, is awaiting prosecution for his complicity in acts of torture and mass murder. Not only is he still serving, he`s been promoted to a rather surprising position.
REPORTER: So what`s your job now?
TIMBUL SILAEN, FORMER CHIEF OF POLICE: Director of the anti-corruption unit.
The man accused of collusion with the most corrupt elements of the Indonesian Army and the old regime is now in charge of the unit meant to be investigating them.
REPORTER: Is there much corruption in Indonesia?
TIMBUL SILAEN: Yeah, including Suharto, right? He`s being tried, isn`t he?
PRD REPRESENTATIVE (addressing courtroom?: Suharto, the military and bureaucrats took advantage of the law to destroy democracy and the principles of the law itself.
The strength of the PRD case is that it doesn`t rely on police investigators to get it to court, nor on government prosecutors to conduct the case. It`s a private action, and the only barrier is the wisdom and judgment of three men.
JUDGE: The judges will give a decision in this case - let me finish first. So in this case, there is no need to call witnesses o hear evidence. That is all I have to say.
PRD REPRESENTATIVE: There is not a single rule which says that - not a chapter or clause that prohibits calling witnesses in this type of case.
The case is adjourned, with judgment as to whether the trial can proceed to be given at a later date. But with neither witnesses or evidence being heard, the gallery make a judgment of their own.
MAN: Suharto`s judge! He`s being paid!
SECOND MAN: Fuck you, Suharto! Fuck you, Suharto!
THIRD MAN: Fuck your Indonesian court! Fuck your Indonesian judge!
Whatever the result in this case, the PRD and others will be back with more civil cases. The trials of the justice system are not over yet.
PRD SUPPORTERS SING: State hacks, go to hell
The army are thugs
They`re dogs and cat shit
State hacks, go to hell
The army are thugs
The judges are dog and cat shit.
The judges are dog and cat shit.
JANA WENDT: And the judgment on that action brought by the People`s Democratic Party will be handed down in Jakarta tomorrow.