Vaudine England, Jakarta – A leading activist says the plethora of human rights inquiries under way across Indonesia constitute a form of "human rights tourism" and they can still fall prey to clever military propaganda.

The activist, Munir, is conducting investigations under the auspices of the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (Kontras). His inquiry is running alongside various others by ad hoc commissions, and the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Mr Munir dismissed as "not serious" the Komnas HAM inquiry into the causes of the religious war in the Maluku Islands.

"This is just human rights tourism," he said, accusing some members of the inquiry as being too close to the military. We have been investigating Maluku for a year now and it is very complicated. There are too many problems in the Maluku case. Komnas HAM also started investigating Maluku last year but it didn't work, they spent only a few days there," he said.

Problems also beset attempts to bring senior military officers to court over allegations of human rights abuses in the secessionist region of Aceh.

A trial of 18 officers and two civilians for the massacre of at least 60 people, including Tengku Bantaqiah, in July last year, is due to begin on the Acehnese island of Sabang before month's end.

The case will be tried in a new hybrid court, combining military and civilian representatives, instead of in open civilian court, in what human rights advocates see as needless kowtowing to military sensibilities.

"The Aceh people will know it's not clean," said Mr Munir. He dismissed the work of the Independent Commission on Aceh, initiated by former president Bacharuddin Habibie, as amateur and imprecise.

At least, however, the rash of human rights investigations appear in stark contrast to the decades under former president Suharto, when there was neither the political will nor the legal capacity to hold officials to account.