E/CN.4/2000/4/Add.2
page 3
Introduction
1.
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, established by the Commission
on Human Rights in its resolution 1991/42 and whose mandate was defined in
Commission resolution 1997/50, visited Indonesia from 31 January to
12 February 1999, at the invitation of the Government of Indonesia. The
delegation was composed of the Vice-Chairman of the Working Group,
Mr. Louis Joinet (head of delegation) and Mr. Roberto Garretón, and two
staff members of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights.
2.
For a number of years, the Commission on Human Rights had encouraged the
Indonesian authorities to extend an invitation to the Working Group to visit
the country and in particular East Timor. 1 On 30 September 1994, in a
decision concerning the case of Mr. Jose Alexandre “Xanana” Gusmao, the
Working Group requested the Government of Indonesia to allow it to visit
Indonesia and East Timor, to enable it effectively to discharge its mandate.
On 1 September 1995, the Government replied that it was not then in a position
to reply positively to the Group’s request and that it had, instead, invited
the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Indonesia and East Timor, in
the context of the statement made by the Chairperson of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights on 1 March 1995.
3.
At the end of the fifty-fourth session of the Commission on Human
Rights, the Chairperson issued a statement on the situation of human rights in
East Timor, 2 welcoming the decision of the Government of Indonesia to invite
the Working Group to visit East Timor prior to the fifty-fifth session of the
Commission. On 13 October 1998, the Government addressed a formal invitation
to the Working Group to visit Indonesia and particularly East Timor.
4.
Throughout the visit, the cooperation of the Indonesian authorities was
exemplary and marked by a spirit of remarkable transparency. Both in Jakarta,
in Denpasar (Bali) and in East Timor, the authorities granted uninhibited
access to prisons, police lockups and, where requested, military facilities.
The delegation was able to interview freely both common law and political
prisoners chosen at random from lists previously made available to the Group
by local and international non-governmental organizations. The delegation
wishes to record its appreciation to the authorities for the cooperation and
logistical support it received throughout the visit. It further wishes to
thank the Office of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations Development
Programme in Jakarta for its assistance.
5.
In Jakarta, the delegation visited Salemba prison, Tanggeran women’s
prison, Cipinang prison, and the lockups at Metro Polda Jaya central police
station. In East Timor, it visited Becora and Balide prisons in Dili, the
prison in Baucau, the police lockups in Dili, and a former detention facility
of the armed forces in Baucau. Finally, in Denpasar (Bali), it visited the
facilities of the central police station. At Cipinang prison in Jakarta, the
delegation was able to talk at length with Xanana Gusmao, the detained leader
of the East Timor independence movement; at Cipinang prison and Tanggeran
women’s prison, it had access to all the political prisoners it had requested
to interview. At the above-mentioned detention facilities, the delegation
interviewed numerous common law and political prisoners.