INDONESIA: JUSTICE IS DEFEATED Humanitarian Worker Gets Three Years

June 16, 2003 Jubilee Campaign

The trial court in Palu, Indonesia sentenced Reverend Rinaldy Damanik to three years. In ruling on the dubious weapons possession charge, the court disregarded the testimony of the prosecution’s crown witness but said they could not disregard the hand-made guns allegedly confiscated by the police.

“Today justice was defeated,” said Ann Buwalda, USA Director of Jubilee Campaign. “An innocent man has been convicted, the Christian people of Central Sulawesi has have been vilified, and the evil men who engineered the conflict and Damanik’s trial have won. This ruling is a blight on individual rights and the Rule of Law in Indonesia.”

During the bloody religious conflict that devastated Central Sulawesi beginning in 1998, Damanik and his GKST Refugee Crisis Center earned a reputation for aiding victims of violence, both Christian and Muslim alike. In August 2002, Damanik and his team were evacuating Christians from a village that had recently been attacked when their caravan was stopped by an angry Muslim mob. In an apparent attempt to placate the mob, the police who arrived made a show of searching the caravan. The next day, much to everyone’s surprise, the police announced that the search had netted illegal weapons.

The Judges were basing their verdict on what they refered as moral and social justice aspects, and material evidence. The judges never gave any clear explanation or definition to the court of what moral and social justice mean. Based on the culture of justice and several previous cases in Indonesia, moral and social justice could mean street riots engineered and sponsored by those who have engineered the Poso conflict. The judges upon considering the elements of “moral and social justice” have killed justice itself, and have violated rights of a citizen, a very good and loyal citizen, whose rights should be protected under the law.

In regard to the material evidence, based on the court testimonies, it should be clear that all the material evidence had been seriously tampered. For that reason alone, there should not be any material evidence used to base such a verdict. On August, 17, 2002, at Peleru village the search was conducted without a warrant and, contrary to police procedure, Damanik was not appraised of the results of the search. Furthermore, the police signatures on the indictment (BAP) against Damanik could not be confirmed. In court, Officer Muhammad Umar Aihunan, whose signature appeared on the document, denied signing it. The other signature was illegible.

Even though the judges acknowledged the procedural errors done by the police during the search, they explained that police in Peleru were for security purposes and not for law enforcement. By claiming that rationale, the judges have simply redefined police roles. In the meantime, Poso was not under any kind of state of emergency. Therefore, police should have followed procedure in order to protect rights of individual citizen.

The judges have acted very irresponsible. The judges ignored testimonies of those, including Mr. Taswin a car shop owner, who testified that the blue Kijang DN790E was in a shop for a serious repair. Rather the judges accepted inconsistent testimonies by witnesses who seemed to remember very well the license plate DN790E, and could not remember license plate of any other vehicles in the caravan that day. Even more disturbing when some witnesses and according to Damanik’s own confession that the vehicle Damanik was in not a blue Kijang, rather a black Kijang.

Sahetepy, an emeritus professor of law at Airlangga University and member of the Indonesian Parliament (DPR), testified that Damanik was being framed by the police and, in such cases, police procedures should be thoroughly scrutinized.

By victimizing and scapegoating Damanik, the engineers of Poso conflict have only one thing in mind, that is to further marginalized the Christians as a way of “dividing and conquering” the people of Central Sulawesi, so that they could further exploit the region. However, the people of Central Sulawesi have understood the agenda of those evil people, and they have committed to strive for peace and rehabilitation in the region.

Today’s ruling is a clear indication that democracy and civil society in Indonesia are taking several steps back. The chief judge, Mr. I Nyoman Somanada, and his colleagues have betrayed democracy and justice. Tomorrow, June 17, 2003, the defense lawyers will file an appeal to the High Court.

Jubilee Campaign has closely followed Damanik’s case since its inception. We currently have a staff person on the ground in Palu and will shortly be running an extended story with excerpts from the Court ruling.

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