Jakarta – Indonesia will release and rehabilitate 62 political prisoners including 20 East Timorese in the coming week, but East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao will not be among those freed, Justice Minister Muladi said Thursday.
The release of 36 political prisoners and the rehabilitation of 26 former political detainees is part of a reform program by the government of President B.J. Habibie, pledged shortly after the fall of former president Suharto in May.
Muladi said among those freed from jails throughout the country by special presidential decree would be 20 East Timorese, 15 (Eds: correct) members of a Moslem fundamentalist movement in Lampung and one Free Aceh separatist. In addition, seven East Timorese, charged but not yet jailed, were given "abolition", meaning the charges against them would be dropped. The 26 to be "rehabilitated" – have their records wiped clean – are former political prisoners, many of them believed to be also from Lampung.
Muladi also said the government was also considering the release of another 80 prisoners, but their files were still being processed. The minister said the presidential decree on the release had already been signed by Habibie, and the prisoners would be released from jails throughout the country shortly.
Asked why Xanana, now serving a 20-year term in Jakarta's Cipinang jail, was not included in the list, Muladi repeated the government's stand his release was connected with a peace settlement with Portugal on the future of the former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975. "It will have to wait for the results of the tripartite meeting with Portugal," he said refering to an autonomy proposal for East Timor now under discussion between Lisbon and Jakarta under UN auspices in New York.
The chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, Marzuki Darusman, hailed the government decision, but said it did not necessarily indicate the government was serious in improving its human rights record. "The question is whether the release is for administrative reasons or it is merely a political ploy. We still have to see government's further handling in the case of political prisoners" said Darusman.
"There is a contradiction in what the government is doing. On the one hand, it continues releasing prisoners but on the other, it has also arrested critical figures," Darusman said. He was apparently refering to the questioning of a group of prominent figures, including retired generals, who have been hauled in by the Habibie government on suspicion of subversion for signing a statement recommending the formation of a transitional government. The government has released 109 political prisoners since May.