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	ICRC expresses concern over a newly-approved US anti-terrorism law by Reuters / BBC News / AP   27 October 2006   US military courts breach international obligations, UN rights expert warns. (UN News)   The Military Commissions Act (MCA) signed into law by President George Bush earlier this month violates the international obligations of the United States under human rights laws in several areas, including the right to challenge detention and to see exculpatory evidence, a United Nations expert on terrorism said today.   “A number of provisions of the MCA appear to contradict the universal and fundamental principles of fair trial standards and due process enshrined in Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions,” the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, said in a statement issued in Geneva.   Special Rapporteurs are unpaid and serve in a personal capacity, reporting to the UN Human Rights Council. Mr. Scheinin requested that the US Government invite him for a visit “in the very near future” to discuss his concerns.   “One of the most serious aspects of this legislation is the power of the President to declare anyone, including US citizens, without charge as an ‘unlawful enemy combatant’ – a term unknown in international humanitarian law – resulting in these detainees being subject to the jurisdiction of a military commission composed of commissioned military officers,” he said.   At the same time, the material scope of crimes to be tried by these commissions is much broader than war crimes in the meaning of the Geneva Conventions, he noted.   “Further, in manifest contradiction with article 9, paragraph 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the MCA denies non US citizens (including legal permanent residents) in US custody the right to challenge the legality of their detention by filing a writ of habeas corpus, with retroactive effect,” he added.   “Another concern is the denial of the right to see exculpatory evidence if it is deemed classified information which severely impedes the right to a fair trial.”   An added concern is that some Governments may view certain aspects of this legislation as an example to be followed in respect of their national counter-terrorism legislation, since the US has taken a lead role on countering terrorism since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, he stressed.   Mr. Scheinin said that during a visit he would also like to discuss other rights concerns such as the Patriot Act, immigration laws and policies, secret detention centres, rendition flights (to countries where detainees might face torture), breaches of non-refoulement (deportation) and the Government’s denial of extra-territorial human rights obligations.   Last month, five other UN human rights rapporteurs rejected US denials that people were tortured at the Guantánamo detention centre and reiterated calls that it be closed down.   October 24, 2006   Governments say they follow U.S. on Jail Treatment, by Evelyn Leopold. (Reuters)   Some countries try to refute criticism over their treatment of prisoners by saying they are only following the U.S. example on handling terror suspects, a U.N. human rights expert said on Monday.   Manfred Nowak, the U.N. investigator on torture, told a news conference that "all too frequently" governments respond to criticism about their jails by saying they handled detainees the same way the United States did.   "The United States has been the pioneer of human rights and is a country that has a high reputation in the world," Nowak said. "Today, other governments are kind of saying, "But why are you criticizing us, we are not doing something different than what the United States is doing."   He said nations like Jordan tell him, "We are collaborating with the United States so it can"t be wrong if it is also done by the United States."   Nowak, along with other U.N. human rights officials, has criticized U.S. policies against terror suspects, including secret jails, harsh treatment and the lack of due process. He turned down a visit to Guantanamo Bay because he could not interview detainees and prison officials in private.   He has argued that if there is evidence against detainees, after years in jail, it should be presented to the usually "efficient" and fair civilian courts rather than military tribunals.   Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said the new U.S. law adopted earlier this month, which outlaws rape and most forms of torture, still allows harsh interrogation methods rights advocates say border on torture. And it does not permit appeals in U.S. federal court.   But he acknowledged U.S. difficulties in closing Guantanamo, saying other countries were refusing to accept prisoners and that Washington did not want to send them to countries where torture was certain. In Europe to date, only Albania has offered to accept them.   In Iraq, however, Nowak said there were improvements in U.S.-run jails and those of its allies following the torture scandals at Abu Ghraib. But now prisoners say jails run by Baghdad"s Interior Ministry and militia are brutal.   "They would prefer if they are in detention to be in the international detention facilities rather than the Iraqi detention facilities," he said.   19 October 2006   ICRC expresses concern over a newly-approved US anti-terrorism law. (BBC News)   International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Jakob Kellenberger said the law raised "questions" about its compliance with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war.   He said some points had been ommitted, such as the right to a fair trial and the ban on humiliating and degrading treatment of prisoners.   President Bush signed the law on Tuesday, saying it would say US lives.   The Military Commissions Act of 2006 sets standards for the interrogation and prosecution of foreign terror suspects held by the US.   The law aims to enshrine defendants" human rights, but still restricts their right to challenge their detention.   It follows a Supreme Court ruling in June that military tribunals set up to prosecute detainees at Guantanamo Bay violated US and international law.   ICRC criticism   "Our preliminary reading of the new legislation raises certain concerns and questions," Mr Kellenberger said. "The very broad definition of who is an "unwlful enemy combatant" and the fact that there is not an explicit prohibition on the admission of evidence attained by coercion are examples."   Mr Kellenberger said the ICRC would discuss its concern with the White House, such as how the law "omits certain violations from the list of acts that are war crimes under US domestic law".   "These include the prohibition of outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, and the prohibition of the denial of the right to a fair trial, which is a basic protection provided for in international law," he said.   Civil liberties groups say the law does not guarantee detainees" rights, and legal challenges are to be expected.   London. October 12, 2006   Detentions draw British Criticism, by Beth Gardiner. (Associated Press)   The detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay is unacceptable and counterproductive, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Thursday, underlining an increasingly critical British line on the U.S.-run prison from America"s closest ally.   Beckett, releasing Britain"s annual report on human rights around the world, said that detention without trial of hundreds of suspects was "unacceptable in terms of human rights" and "ineffective in terms of counterterrorism."   The report called for the camp to be closed.   "It"s widely argued now that the existence of the camp is as much a radicalizing and discrediting influence as it is a safeguard for security," she said.   Prime Minister Tony Blair so far has gone no further in public than calling the camp an "anomaly" that sooner or later must end.   But two senior legal officials, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith and Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer, spoke out against the U.S. detention policy earlier this year.   In June, Falconer had denounced the detention center in eastern Cuba as a "recruiting agent" for terrorism, and described its existence as "intolerable and wrong."   In a speech in Washington last month, Falconer said the U.S. policy of "deliberately seeking to put the detainees beyond the reach of the law" was a "shocking ... affront to the principles of democracy."   Falconer said that was the British government"s view, not simply his own opinion. Goldsmith said in May that "the existence of Guantanamo Bay remains unacceptable."   In the report released Thursday, Beckett said human rights and counterterror efforts should go hand in hand, arguing that rights abuses only provoke extremism. The report also criticized repressive regimes it said had used democracies" adoption of tough anti-terror laws as cover for their own, more authoritarian, crackdowns. It did not specify which nations it was referring to.   Rights groups have criticized the Blair administration"s own attitude toward human rights, claiming it has been complicit in the use of secret CIA prisons, the existence of which were acknowledged by Bush in September.   Blair"s government has denied allowing the U.S. to use British airports to conduct so-called extraordinary rendition flights, allegedly used to ferry prisoners to and from the secret prisons.   Separately, the report criticized rights abuses in nations including Iran, Sudan, Syria, Cuba and Zimbabwe. Less harshly, the report raised concerns about violations in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Russia ad China, and acknowledged there were still major troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
	Justice for Munir by Jakarta Post, New York Times, agencies Indonesia   September 2014   A decade of injustice, time to find Munir''s real killers, by Papang Hidayat. (The Jakarta Post)   Today marks exactly 10 years since Indonesia lost one of its most courageous and compassionate voices Munir Said Thalib.   On Sept. 7, 2004, Munir, as he was affectionately known, was slipped arsenic while in transit in Singapore during a trip to Amsterdam, and didn''t make it through the flight alive. A decade later, we''re still no closer to finding the masterminds behind his murder.   One of Indonesia''s most prominent human rights campaigners, Munir took up the cause of dozens of activists who were subjected to enforced disappearance. He co-founded two prominent human rights organizations, helped to uncover evidence of military responsibility for human rights violations in Aceh, Papua and Timor Leste (formerly East Timor), and made recommendations to the government on bringing high-ranking officials to justice. In September 1999, he was appointed to the Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations (KPP-HAM) in East Timor.   I was personally lucky enough to work closely with Munir before his tragic death. I first met him in 1996 when he was a human rights lawyer with the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation. I, along with other student activists, met him frequently at his office in 1998, when we organized many protests against Soeharto''s government.   Later, in 2004, he asked me to join his organization, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), where I worked for more than eight years before moving to Amnesty International. I remember Munir as not only a very courageous and persistent human rights defender, but also as an inspiring guru who trained many excellent rights activists in the country.   Many of us still live by one of his most famous sayings: ''What we must fear most is fear itself, because fear affects our judgment.''   Although three people have been convicted of Munir''s murder, there are credible allegations that those responsible for his death at the highest levels have not been brought to justice. The three convicted were all employees of Garuda Indonesia, the state airline that Munir used on the day of his murder, but it is highly unlikely that they acted alone.   Former National Intelligence Agency (BIN) official Muchdi Purwopranjono faced trial in 2008, but was acquitted and many activists claim the process was flawed. Further, the findings of a 2005 independent fact-finding team into the killing, which was established by the authorities, was disregarded by the government and has never been published.   Munir''s case cannot be seen in isolation, but is indicative of the wider culture of impunity surrounding attacks and harassment of human rights defenders in the country. In Indonesian there''s even the word, dimunirkan (munirization), which applies when someone has been killed in mysterious circumstances.   Although the worst violence of the Soeharto era has subsided, many activists in Indonesia still live with daily threats, and it is all too rare that those responsible for the past killings of human rights defenders have been brought to justice.   While outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono showed little political will to bring Munir''s real killers to justice, president-elect Joko ''Jokowi Widodo has made lofty promises to make human rights a priority once he takes office in October.   Unfortunately, Jokowi got off to an inauspicious start when he appointed Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, a former BIN head, to his transition team. Hendropriyono was the head of BIN at the time of Munir''s murder and many human rights groups believe was involved in Munir''s assassination though Hendropriyono has always denied the allegations. Outrage from Munir''s widow at the appointment forced Jokowi''s camp to reaffirm their commitment to resolving Munir''s case.   When Jokowi takes office, he has a golden opportunity to send a clear message that impunity for the killing of human rights defenders will no longer be tolerated. A first step should be to release the 2005 fact-finding report into Munir''s killing to establish the truth. Secondly, he should ensure a new, independent police investigation into the case, so that everyone responsible regardless of their official position are held to account.   Munir was a unique voice and Indonesia owes him a debt of gratitude for all he has done for human rights in our country.   On the 10th anniversary of his death, the least we can do is ensure that his murder is not forgotten and that the real killers are brought to justice.   * The writer is Amnesty International''s Indonesia researcher.   January 20, 2007   Justice hopes rise as murder case reopens. (The Age)   Whoever poisoned Munir Said Thalib, Indonesia''s most respected human rights lawyer, on a Garuda plane flying to Europe underestimated the determination of his wife to see the killers brought to justice.   "I am committed to fight until the truth is uncovered," said Mrs Suciwati, who has taken her campaign as far as the US Congress and the UN.   In September 2004, Mr Munir, 38, was upgraded from a Garuda plane''s economy section to business class, where his orange drink was spiked with a fatal dose of arsenic.   Mrs Suciwati''s campaign has forced Indonesian police to reopen their investigations, including an examination of off-duty pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto''s links with former top officials of Indonesia''s secretive national intelligence organisation, BIN.   Mrs Suciwati has also filed a $US1.4 million ($A1.77 million) lawsuit in Central Jakarta District Court against Garuda, the plane''s pilots and crew, accusing the state-owned airline of negligence resulting in her husband''s death.   During the trial set for next week, Mrs Suciwati''s lawyers will demand that the airline place newspaper advertisements apologising for what happened.   "I''d like to make it clear that this airline displayed ignorance about passenger safety and comfort," Mrs Suciwati said.   But the 37-year-old mother of two remains sceptical about seeing any progress in the investigation that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called a test case of change within Indonesia.   "The man who died was the man who stood in the front line and shouted very hard to defend human rights," Mrs Suciwati said. "But the man became the victim. There have been no serious efforts to uncover the truth."   For more than 15 years, Mr Munir fearlessly exposed police and military atrocities and defended labour activists.   He refused to quit, despite the sort of threats and intimidation his widow now receives over her equally fearless campaign.   When Mr Munir boarded Garuda flight 974 bound for Amsterdam via Singapore, Pollycarpus offered him his business-class seat. Pollycarpus went to sit in the first-class area.   By the time the plane reached Singapore, Mr Munir was not feeling well and sent a text message to his wife.   Over India, Mr Munir became violently ill. Three hours later he was dead.   An autopsy at Amsterdam''s Schiphol Airport showed his body contained three times more arsenic than it could tolerate.   Pollycarpus became the only official suspect in the case, despite suspicion the murder was part of a wider conspiracy.   He was sentenced to 14 years jail in 2005 but Indonesia''s Supreme Court quashed the conviction last November, prompting a storm of protest from human rights advocates who described the decision as a failure of the country''s justice system.   The court sentenced Pollycarpus to two years jail for falsifying flight records but he was a free man at Christmas, thanks to several sentence remissions, when he called a news conference.   "I didn''t kill Munir. I don''t know him, he''s not my enemy and he''s not my friend," he told reporters.   Within days, national police chief General Sutanto announced he would reopen the investigation. He said both old and new witnesses would be interviewed but declined to name them.   "We can''t disclose it now. Please be patient," he said.   Attorney-General Abdul Rahman Saleh also announced he would appeal against the Supreme Court''s decision.   "Polly could say Munir was not killed. We are convinced he was," he said. "Big questions (about Pollycarpus) still remain. We will go after him."   What has not been explained is why Pollycarpus made 41 calls to a then director of the state intelligence organisation before Mr Munir boarded the flight.   The man and other top intelligence officials have refused to be questioned by police — an apparent immunity not available to other Indonesians.   At Pollycarpus trial, Mrs Suciwati openly accused the former director of ordering her husband''s murder.   President Yudhoyono has been frustrated by the lack of progress in the investigation, palace sources say, even though he authorised a fact-finding team to investigate along with the police. The team''s findings have not been made public but the Jakarta media have reported that former intelligence officials have been implicated.   The handling of the case has fuelled international criticism that Indonesia is still reluctant to dismantle a culture of immunity protecting powerful figures despite democratic elections.   Mrs Suciwati said Dr Yudhoyono should be more courageous in confronting shadowy figures who may be implicated in the murder.   She whipped up national fervour late last year when she met with Philip Alston, the UN''s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, who said he was willing to look into the case. Politicians and police chiefs in Jakarta angrily rejected any UN intervention.   But Mrs Suciwati had achieved what she set out to do: stir up enough controversy to force police to reopen their inquiries.   "To be honest, I believe our police can handle the case," Mrs Suciwati said.   "But there must be political will. The main problem is that the state keeps granting immunity to human rights abusers. I believe the police already know who did it."   October 15, 2006 (NYT)   Munir Said Thalib was one of Indonesia"s most respected human rights lawyers. Over 15 fearless years of work, he exposed military and police atrocities in East Timor and Aceh, defended labor activists and urged all Indonesians to demand accountability from their government. So it was a tragedy, but tragically less than a surprise, when Munir died suddenly on a plane flight to Amsterdam in 2004 - a victim of arsenic poisoning.   Munir"s memory and Indonesian justice suffered another tragic assault this month when the country"s Supreme Court overturned the conviction of his alleged murderer: a pilot with ties to Indonesia"s intelligence services.   The investigation into Munir"s death was an important test for Indonesia"s still young democracy. It has failed several times over.   There was optimism when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed an independent fact-finding team. According to local news reports, their findings implicated not only Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto - the airline pilot traveling as a passenger on the fateful flight - but also senior intelligence officials. An examination of Pollycarpus"s phone records showed that in the days before and after the flight he made more than two dozen calls to a high- ranking member of the state intelligence agency.   The full facts are still not known because Yudhoyono has refused to release his commission"s report and prosecutors did not argue the existence of a broader conspiracy. The conviction of Pollycarpus, and only Pollycarpus, was less than satisfying. The Supreme Court"s decision to overturn even that sole conviction, claiming insufficient evidence, only adds to the crime.   Yudhoyono has said that the investigation into Munir"s death was a "test case for whether Indonesia has changed." If he is sincere about defending human rights and building an honest legal system, Yudhoyono should immediately release the suppressed report. He should also order a new independent investigation, with a clear presidential mandate to follow the evidence wherever it leads.   The truth about who killed Munir is the only antidote for Indonesia"s poisoned justice system.
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