TITLE: Aceh Independence Activist Walks Out of Trial

AUTHOR:

PUB: The Indonesian Observer

DATE: March 15, 2001

A leading independence activist walked out of his trial by a court in troubled Aceh province yesterday as it refused to summon President Abdurrahman Wahid or his representative as a witness.Muhammad Nazar, chairman of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA), walked out of the Banda Aceh District Court in protest with his defense lawyers."The accusation against me ... is that I insulted the government, in this case the government of President Wahid, therefore it is important for a witness from the government's side to come and say in what way I have insulted them," Nazar was quoted by AFP as saying. "I reject all testimonies in this court today, until the witness [Wahid] is made to appear in court," he said.Nazar, who faces seven years imprisonment if convicted, is accused of having "publicly expressed enmity, hatred or insults towards the government of Indonesia". The judges went ahead and heard the testimony of three witnesses without the defendant present, as well as the written testimony of two other witnesses. The court adjourned until March 20. State prosecutor Suheri told the opening session of the trial that Nazar had distributed banners with slogans demanding a referendum on independence for Aceh.The banners, which Nazar is accused of having distributed on August 17, Indonesia's national day, stated: "Aceh remains within the Republic of Indonesia or Freedom". Meanwhile, Amnesty International said yesterday the government has jailed many "prisoners of conscience" in Aceh and Irian Jaya or West Papua in an attempt to stamp out two long-running separatist movements. "The Indonesian security forces are intensifying their repressive approach in Aceh, and peaceful political activists in Papua are being silenced behind prison bars," it said. Rebels in Aceh and Irian Jaya have been struggling for separate independent homelands for decades."An approach based on locking up peaceful activists and intensifying military repression will seriously undermine prospects for a peaceful solution to problems in these provinces," Amnesty said. The state-sponsored National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) acknowledged the existence of political prisoners in the country's trouble spots."I don't think the detention of people with different political views will contribute to a peaceful solution to the problems in Aceh and Irian Jaya," Komnas HAM Secretary General, Asmara Nababan was quoted by AFP as saying. "On the contrary it will create more dissatisfaction." Nababan said that the country's criminal code, which still allowed people to be detained for their beliefs, needed to be amended. END top