---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- SUPANGKAT'S COLUMN: IS KOMNAS HAM DEPENDABLE? The UN Human Rights Commission decision to have an inquiry on the attrocities in East Timor is not taken seriously by Indonesia unde the pretext that "it is not bind- ing", equating it with the UN General Asssembly. Perhaps legally so according to the old perception that only the Security Council decision has the legal binding. Even so, Indonesia got two Securituy Council Re- solutions, one of them adopted unanimously and was rejected flatly. Indonesia also got about a dozen General Assembly resolutions on East Timor which is legally not binding and none of them was implemented or heeded. So, binding or not binding, Indonesia has the habit of trashing UN decisions. And by the way, is the Komnas HAM (Indonesian National Commission of Human Rights) dependable? How many cases of attrocities had been swept under the rug: the disappearances of pro-democracy activists, the massacre of student- demonstrators in Jakarta, the Tanjung Priok masssacre, the Aceh massacre, the Lampung massacre, the Santa Cruz massacre, etc etc ? How about the pro-government stance on East Timor attrocities after the referen- dum, is this not proof enough of its impartiality ? The Indonesian Tribunal to be set up is much to be desired to be impartial either. Besides, even if the Tribunal found the generals guilty as charged, who is going to surrender the men with the machine guns to the UN Tribunal unless he is willing to be kidnaped or even shot to death by these armed people? Only the UN Tribunal could put them on the most wanted list and arrested them on sight outside Indonesia like they did to Pinochet. Other than that it would be an excercise in futility. New York, Okctober 1, 1999. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 1 Oct 1999 jam 23:15:59 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
