Tiarma Siboro and M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) says it does not oppose soldiers being tried by an Aceh human rights court using principles of retroactive justice as mandated in the Aceh governance bill.
The bill, currently being deliberated in the House of Representatives, would allow soldiers involved in the 30-year conflict to be tried for abuses committed years before human rights laws were passed in the country.
"We have no objection to idea of imposing retroactive principles in the Aceh governance bill. We do understand the principle may bring to trial some of our soldiers due to alleged human rights violations in the past," TNI spokesman Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki said Friday as quoted by Antara.
"But if the legal procedures are observed properly and in a professional manner, we will support the idea" of the establishment of an ad hoc human rights tribunal in Aceh, Ahmad said.
He said the military had always respected the law in Aceh. This had been illustrated by the institution's support for the trials of soldiers charged with violations during the 2003 military operation in the province.
While the TNI supports the move, most legislators deliberating the Aceh bill are opposed to the use of retroactive justice.
The two biggest factions in the House of Representatives – the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), are opposed to the idea, which they said would lead to "unfair" trials.
Sutradara Gintings, from the PDI-P, said he believed the retroactive principle would only be used to target members of the military and not violence committed by Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas during three decades of separatist fighting.
Meanwhile, the Aceh Working Group (AWG) urged the government and the House to immediately establish an ad hoc human rights court and a Commission of Truth and Reconciliation in Aceh.
AWG activist Choirul Anam said the commission's establishment would force all parties, including TNI soldiers, GAM members and Acehnese militias, to confront the violence they committed during the conflict.
"And the actors behind gross human rights violations in Aceh – be they top level officials or GAM top leaders – will not evade the ad hoc human rights tribunal," he said.
The House's special committee wrapped up its deliberations of the Aceh governing bill Friday, leaving many of the contentious issues in the legislation to be discussed further by a working committee.
Other contentious issues in the bill included the establishment of local political parties, independent candidates contesting local elections, revenue sharing between the central government and local administration from natural resources and the sharia courts system.
Special committee chairman Ferry Mursyidan Baldan of the Golkar Party said the House working committee would convene on Monday. Its discussions on the bill would likely be closed to the public, Ferry said.
"However, if the working committee works behind closed doors, there will be a press briefing every evening to let the public know about our progress," he said.
Twenty lawmakers will sit in the working committee, half the members of the special committee. Golkar and the PDI-P have four and three members on the working committee, respectively.