Jakarta – The Indonesian military continues to misunderstand the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), with the result that Indonesia still has not ratified the international convention, an analyst says.
Marzuki Darusman, the executive director of the Human Right Resource Center for ASEAN, said the government had already expressed its intention to ratify the statute, but that the military's fears about the ramifications of adopting the convention had stopped the House of Representatives from deliberating the convention.
"They are yet to understand that the Rome Statute will only be applicable for actions in the future after a party signs it, not for human rights violations in the past," Marzuki said on Thursday during an event held by the National Commission for Human Rights and the coalition for ICC.
The Rome Statute will be a basis for the establishment of an independent international court for legal proceedings of extraordinary crimes like genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression.
Marzuki cited that in 2008 the government had planned to ratify the statute. "However, there have been difficulties since the military's concerns that the court will hold a trial over violations in the past was transferred to the Defense Ministry. Then, there was a debate within the government," Marzuki said.
Bhatara Ibnu Reza, an expert member of the coalition for the ICC, said that the statute would help Indonesia improve its protection of human rights.
"It will set new rules of engagement for the military to avoid violations of human rights. It will also give a distinction for trials of war crimes, which is actually not in the area of the military court. A war criminal could be a civilian, or military officers could also be victims," Bhatara said.
Indriaswati D Saptaningrum, the director of ELSAM, a non-governmental organization taking part in the coalition, said that Indonesia had no reason to delay the ratification of the statute.
"The Rome Statute does not ask the ratifying country to give annual reports like in other international covenants," she said. Therefore, she said, the military had to change their perception of the statute so that the government could ratify it immediately.
The coalition has called on the government to ratify the statute in 2013. (rcf)