Although the sentences handed down to soldiers found guilty of torturing indigenous Papuans have been roundly criticized for being too light, observers are now saying the trial itself showed the military had improved in its handling of human rights cases.
Robert Scher, the top Pentagon official handling Southeast Asia, reiterated US concerns that the 10-month sentences given to three soldiers over the abuse in Papua were too lenient.
However, he added: “We do see that there was progress in the fact that this was a trial that was conducted quickly.”
He went on to praise the trial for being “open and transparent.”
“This is not something that one could imagine happening just a few years ago,” Scher, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, said at Washington think-tank the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday.
“I think there is still work to be done and clearly, as noted, we are concerned by the sentences.”
Scher added that the United States would raise the issue with the Indonesian government.
The torture incident caused international outrage last year when a video posted on YouTube showed soldiers burning the genitals of one man with a smoldering stick and threatening another man with a knife.
Indonesian human rights activists also acknowledged that, in the context of Indonesian military tradition, the trial showed that progress has been made.
“Previously, most violations conducted by Indonesian soldiers went unchecked, nothing was done to solve cases,” said Ifdhal Kasim, chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Thursday.
“It seems the military has begun to learn the importance of taking legal action against soldiers who have committed violations,” he said.
But he stressed that recent progress was still not enough.
Haris Azhar, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said that while the Indonesian military’s effort to respond to the torture was laudable, it was not enough of an indication of substantial institutional change.
“They did respond which is positive, but then again they didn’t respond using the proper mechanism, which is the civilian courts,” he said.
Haris also questioned why the US military would praise their Indonesian counterparts.
“It makes us wonder if there is a political motivation behind the comments,” he said.
President Barack Obama’s administration has put a priority on further developing relations with this nation.
“Indonesia’s a critically important country for us,” Scher said, calling the archipelago an “emerging global player.”