US Embassy in Dili admits mistake about worker's rights

The General Workers Union of Timor-Leste tells ETAN that they met with the US Embassy in Dili on 3 February 2011 and successfully settled the dispute about the unfair dismissal of Mario Baretto and their subsequent claim that their national staff cannot join a union. ETAN had written the embassy about the dispute.

From the union: 

The Embassy advised that they had mistakenly stated their policy and affirmed their staff’s right to join a union:

The US Embassy seeks to be a model employer and respects workers and the role of unions in representing workers. The Administration has been a strong international supporter of labour rights and we want to maintain an open relationship with the unions and labor rights advocates here in Timor-Leste.

The Embassy also confirmed that they seek to be fully compliant with local labour laws and resolved Mr Baretto’s dismissal consistent with the Labour Code of Timor-Leste.

The General Workers Union of Timor-Leste and the Trade Union Confederation of Timor-Leste would like to thank all those individuals and organisations that supported Mr Baretto and Timorese workers by writing to the Ambassador.

Please direct any media enquiries to:

Almerio Vila Nova
General Secretary
General Workers Union
+670 724 8482

Timorese call on the UN Security Council to ensure accountability for crimes against humanity

A coalition of groups in Timor-Leste is urging the United Nations Security Council "to take concrete, effective actions to end impunity for those who directed and committed crimes against humanity in Timor-Leste" during Indonesia's invasion and occupation.

"Accountability for crimes against humanity must not be further delayed" the Timor-Leste National Alliance for an International Tribunal (ANTI) told the UN Security Council in a letter delivered this week.

ANTI criticized UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon for failing "to mention the consequences of ongoing impunity for the serious international crimes committed during the Indonesian occupation" in his latest report to the Council.

The letter was endorsed by more than 30 other organizations from outside of Timor-Leste.

"We are still not yet free of the shadow of serious crimes committed during the 24 years of Indonesian occupation. We have suffered a lot during that period; physically and psychologically, because of torture from various types of violations, including sexual violence against women, and the loss of 180,000 human lives because of the brutal, illegal Indonesian military occupation," said ANTI.

ANTI added "If impunity continues to prevail in Timor-Leste, it will have a negative impact on the stability and security of our country; undercutting the efforts of the United Nations to establish rule of law and strength security institutions. In addition, the perpetrators are continuing to commit similar crimes in Indonesia."

The Security Council is scheduled to meet on February 22 to discuss the future of the UN Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT). The mission's current mandate expires February 26. 


The Security Council should "discuss the recommendations of the [2005] Commission of Experts regarding the establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal when national mechanisms fail." They also urged the Council to enlarge the mandate of the Serious Crimes Investigation Team (SCIT) to allow the investigation and support the prosecution "of the principal perpetrators of serious crimes and crimes against humanity throughout the Indonesian occupation from 1975-1999." The SCIT current mandate only allows investigations of murders committed during 1999, when the UN sponsored the referendum which led to Timor-Leste's independence.

ANTI argues that such prosecutions are "the only solution to end impunity in Timor-Leste and Indonesia, so that democracy and human rights that we yearn for can be achieved in Timor-Leste and other countries."

Endorsing groups include the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (U.S.); KontraS, the Indonesian human rights organization; Japan East Timor Coalition; International Federation for East Timor; Australian Coalition for Justice for East Timor; and the regional Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition.

Full letter (in english and tetun) and signatures here

West Papua Report February 2011: no justice for torture victims, demos vs special autonomy, PNG attacks refugees -

West Papua Report February 2011 now out.


Summary


An Indonesian military tribunal failed to properly prosecute military personnel for the torture of two Papuans whose agony was viewed around the world online in October 2010. Instead, the tribunal convicted three soldiers for the minor offense of "disobeying orders," sentencing them to between eight and ten months imprisonment. This failure to prosecute the soldiers to the full extent of the law and to try them in a civilian court was broadly criticized by Indonesian and international observers, including the U.S. State Department. U.S., UK and Australian organizations called for suspension of foreign assistance to the Indonesian military which continues to violate human rights with impunity, particularly in West Papua. President Yudhoyono's pre-sentencing description of the torture as a "minor incident" was prejudicial and contributed to an atmosphere of impunity. Papuans, organized by leading Papuan churches and other organizations demonstrated in large numbers calling for abolition of the Peoples Consultative Council (MRP). The body was created by the widely-rejected 2001 "Special Autonomy" law. Prisoners of Conscience Filep Karma and Buchtar Tabuni continue to languish in police custody following a December 3 prison riot. They suffer from health-threatening conditions and do not have regular access to their families or to legal counsel. Papua New Guinea security personnel attacked villages and encampments of West Papuan civilians living in PNG territory near the border with Indonesia. PNG authorities have detained nine of the scores of people displaced, who were moved into camps or have fled into the forests. Their plight, particularly those who were chased into forests, is uncertain.West Papuan students continue to call for dialogue in the wake of the failure of "special autonomy." They note that the central government has failed to issue implementing regulations required to give the decade-old law life.

ETAN: Letter to State Department on issuing visas to U.S. in Dili

ETAN writes to Secretary of State Clinton about issuing visas in Dili to East Timorese wanting to travel to the United States.

Light Sentences for Rights Violators Spark Calls for Suspension of Aid to Abusive and Unaccountable Indonesian Military

Contact: Ed McWilliams (WPAT), +1-575-648-2078
Paul Barber (TAPOL) +44 1420 80153 or +44 774 730 1739
John M. Miller (ETAN) +1-917-690-4391

The West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT),  East and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and TAPOL condemn the Indonesian government's failure to hold Indonesian military personnel responsible for the grave crime of torture of two Papuans. The torture was revealed in a video posted online in October 2010 shocked the international community (http://www.etan.org/news/2010/10video.htm). Rather than try the perpetrators before a civilian court the Indonesian government allowed the Indonesian military to try the soldiers in a military court. On January 24, the Military Court in Papua sentenced three soldiers to minimal sentences of eight to 10 months imprisonment for the minor procedural offense of disobeying orders.

The Indonesian Government's refusal to prosecute the perpetrators in a civilian court and the failure to charge them with serious criminal offences commensurate with the violence inflicted on the victims reflect a longstanding pattern where security force personnel who commit heinous crimes against Papuans are inadequately punished, if they are punished at all.  For example, the special forces (Kopassus) personnel convicted by a military court for the torture-murder of the leading Papuan political figure, Theys Eluay, in 2001 similarly received sentences not commensurate with the crime. They were lauded publicly by a leading Indonesian military figure as "heroes." 

Unfortunately, Indonesia President's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in pre-sentencing public remarks described the torture, which included the burning of the genitals of a Papuan man with a stick pulled from the fire, as "only a minor incident."  This dismissal of the seriousness of the crime reinforces a pattern of impunity for security personnel.

WPAT, ETAN and TAPOL remain concerned  that Indonesia has  refused to make torture a specific offence under Indonesian criminal law, notwithstanding Indonesia's obligations under the United Nations Convention Against Torture which it signed in 1985 and ratified in 1998. We urge Indonesia to do so.

Indonesian military personnel, especially those operating in West Papua, which has seen the worst security forces abuse over the past decade, continue to perpetrate torture, rape, extrajudicial killings and other well documented abuses in part because they are aware they will never be effectively prosecuted for these crimes. By refusing to prosecute military offenders to the full extend of the law in civilian courts the Indonesian government is complicit in the military's continuing abuses.

The impunity long enjoyed by Indonesian security personnel for their criminal behavior stands in stark contrast to the severe sentences meted out to Papuans who assemble peacefully to protest decades of Indonesian government repression and the denial of essential services to the Papuan people. Dozens of Papuans have been imprisoned for years where, as described by UN reports, these peaceful  dissenters endure health and life threatening treatment and conditions.  Amnesty International and other reputable human rights organizations have identified many as "prisoners of conscience."

Government restrictions on travel to and within West Papua have long impeded the ability of the international community to monitor human rights and other developments. Indonesian security and intelligence forces within West Papua routinely shadow and obstruct the movement of the few international journalists and even diplomats who do manage to enter West Papua. Papuans who speak to these observers are often threatened and harassed.

The U.S. and other governments should act in a substantive way to end the continued abuses by Indonesian security forces against Papuans. The U.S., in particular, should exercise its significant leverage by suspending its extensive and expanding military assistance programs for Indonesia pending real reform of the Indonesian military. This reform should, at minimum, include an end to human rights violations by Indonesian military personnel,  as well as effective prosecution in civilian courts of military personnel who perpetrate abuses and with sentencing commensurate with the crimes. The U.S. should also make any resumption of military-to-military cooperation contingent on an end to Indonesian government restrictions on access to West Papua by independent journalists and other observers, as well as an end to Indonesian security and intelligence force intimidation of those Papuans peacefully advocating for their political and other human rights.

More generally, WPAT, ETAN and TAPOL appeal to the governments of the  United States and the United Kingdom and the European Union to promptly and publicly register with the Indonesian government their deep concern over what is only this latest example of decades of failed justice in West Papua.

  see also West Papua Report
U.S.-Indonesia Military Assistance