The Human Rights Watch annual report has singled out the government of Indonesia for failing to address human rights abuses by the military. It says human rights workers have faced increased persecution especially when they sought to investigate abuses in regions like Aceh and Papua. The Director of the Indonesia Project for the International Crisis Group in Jakarta goes further, saying the prosecution of crimes committed in East Timor is appalling.

Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Mares

Speakers: Sidney Jones, Jakarta-based Director of the Indonesia Project for the International Crisis Group

Jones: "There was very little effort made to try and actually make a case for crimes against humanity.

"It was more a case of failing to prevent violence between two warring parties, both of which were East Timorese, and that gave judges even had their been the political will to convict very little to go on. Given that it's fairly amazing that we had any convictions at all and even more so that the last conviction was of a military officer. Now the chances are he will get off on appeal and we have some of the major verdicts still to come."

Mares: And why this failure, is it simply a lack of political will?

Jones: "I think it's a combination of factors. Political will is probably the primary one, almost certainly the primary one, but there's also the issue of the legal system in Indonesia not ever having to deal with crimes against humanity before and simply not the knowledge in the system to bring the adequate case had there been the will to do so.

"I think those are the major issues and given that I think some of the judges deserve credit for pushing as far as they did to try and get convictions and in some cases using Rwanda precedents as an example."

Mares: This does seem to contrast with the high level of activity we're seeing in relation to the Bali bombings where the Indonesian police are being praised around the world for their action in relation to that crime?

Jones: "I think there's several factors at work however. "First of all we are dealing with the police and not with the military and the police see that they have everything to gain even in relation to their rivalry with the military by doing a good professional job on the Bali bombings.

"Secondly this has been a kind of on the job training for them in a way that they very much appreciated, particularly with help from the Australian Federal Police who've been marvellous.

"And I think third there's been a real desire to get to the bottom of this, it's not political in the same way that East Timor was seen as being the place where Indonesian unity was being defended and for that reason Indonesian nationalism was at stake. That's not the case with the Bali bombings."

Mares: What does this tell us then about other investigations underway, say for example the case of the murder of Theys Eluay the Papuan leader in the province of Papua where the Indonesian military stand accused by police of the murder, or the shootings at the Freeport mine in Papua where Americans were killed, where again the police have pointed to the military as being responsible for those crimes?

Jones: "I think anywhere in Indonesia where you have the military effectively fighting a counter-insurgency battle against separatists you're going to have this factor of nationalism kick in and you're going to see a total unwillingness on the part of the military to have the facts come to light.

"The military will try to prevent the police from pursuing these inquiries and in fact as I understand that they're already have been some effort to obstruct the case in Papua, both with respect to Theys Eluay as well as the case in Timika. Whether or not it will succeed in all cases I'm not sure but we're seeing an equal obstructionism in Aceh."

Mares: What examples can you give of the problems in Aceh?

Jones: "Well the best example is the Rutter case, which was a case in December 2000 where three humanitarian workers from an anti-torture organisation were killed and a fourth victim escaped at the last moment because he managed to untie himself.

"His information to the police led to the arrest of eight people, including four military and four civilian thugs. "The four civilian thugs all escaped from prison and that's escaped in quotation marks within two months after their arrest.

"The military people were eventually released for lack of evidence when in fact there was a good eyewitness account in great detail naming names and giving descriptions. And the fact that they couldn't even prosecute that case, let alone keep the suspects in prison, is indicative of the lack of will to prosecute."