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Rights group condemns Aceh's new stoning law
Indonesia's rights group resents the new law which replaces elements of
criminal code with Shariah for Muslims
Publish Date: Tuesday,15 September, 2009, at 10:34 PM Doha Time
AFP/Banda Aceh
Indonesian rights activists yesterday condemned as "cruel and degrading" a new
Islamic law calling for adulterers to be stoned to death in the country's
staunchly conservative Aceh province. The law-which also allows punishments of
up to 400 lashes for child rape, 100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes
for gambling-was passed unanimously on Monday by lawmakers in the region at
Sumatra island's northern tip.
The law replaces elements of Indonesia's criminal code with sharia, or Islamic
law, for Muslims. It allows the death penalty for a married person and 100
lashes for an unmarried person found guilty in cases of adultery. "The laws
that have been approved in Aceh are cruel and degrading to humanity," National
Commission on Human Rights head Ifdhal Kasim said.
The law undermines the secular basis of Indonesia's law, Kasim said, adding the
rights group was appealing to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to review the
legislation. "This will bring Aceh back to the past. Throwing stones is like
Aceh in the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries," Kasim said, adding the law
would likely embolden conservatives pushing for sharia on a national level. The
controversial legal change was passed in Aceh just weeks before a new, more
moderate provincial assembly-dominated by the Aceh Party of former separatist
fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) - is due to take power.
The administration of Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, himself a former GAM
fighter, is opposed to the strict sharia law, but has said it is powerless to
stop the law, which will come into effect in 30 days with or without his
signature. "(The law) only deals with petty crimes, adulterers, but it doesn't
deal with (significant crimes such as) corrupt officials," Human Rights Watch
spokesman Andreas Harsono said. "In our opinion it is against the principle of
human rights," he said.
Human Rights Working Group head Rafendi Djamin said the punishments set out in
the law were "humiliating and degrading" and a product of politicking among
local leaders. "They're more interested in private issues than issues of the
wider public interest like corruption and measures to empower people who have
been suffering in the wake of conflict," Djamin said. Arif Budimanta, a senior
official of the opposition Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) of former
president Megawati Sukarnoputri, condemned the law-despite local members having
voted for it in the Aceh assembly. "We are deeply concerned about this cruel
law as it is against our national ideology and values of pluralism," he said.
Spokesmen for Yudhoyono, a liberal ex-general re-elected by a landslide earlier
this year, could not be reached for comment. The country's Supreme Court sent
a team of judges to Aceh following the law's passage to investigate whether it
"collides" with established laws, news website Detikcom reported.
Ma'ruf Amin, the head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, Indonesia's top
Islamic body, welcomed the new hardline law. "The council supports sharia law
in areas where it is allowed, like Aceh, which has special autonomy. It's not a
matter of good or bad. "For Muslims, sharia law is the best and can be
implemented anytime, anywhere. As long as there is agreement from everyone,
there's no problem," Amin said. Aceh previously adopted a milder form of
Shariah law in 2001 as part of an autonomy package from Jakarta aimed at
quelling local separatist sentiment.
The Shariah code enforced religious observation and offered lighter
punishments-including caning-for gambling, drinking and association between
unmarried members of the opposite sex. Separatists in Aceh had been fighting
the Indonesian government since 1976 until a peace deal in 2005 in a conflict
that claimed over 15,000 lives. Nearly 90% of Indonesia's 234mn people are
Muslim, but the country also has significant Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and
Confucian minorities. Most Muslims practise a moderate form of the religion.
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