UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 58TH SESSION
Statement by
Mr. Arif Havas Oegroseno
Representative of Indonesian Delegation
Sixth Commiittee
Agenda Item 156:
Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism
New York, 20 October 2003
Mr. Chairman,
Allow me, first of all, to express our appreciation to the Chairman
of the Working Group as well as the Coordinators of the informal consultations
for their tireless efforts in our deliberations. Indonesia associates
itself with the joint statement by the Vietnamese delegate of behalf
of ASEAN. From our national perspective, however, allow me to share
with you, Indonesia's vigorous efforts in combating terrorism.
In October 2002, President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed two Government
Regulations in Lieu of Law, on the elimination of terrorism. The Indonesian
Government has also established an Anti-terrorism Task Force under
the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, involving
58 government/military officials, experts, NGOs and academics. The
Task Force mainly deals with concerted efforts in analyzing, planning
and evaluation, as well as serving as a reporting mechanism on terrorist
activities.
Indonesia believes that the most important task to deal with terrorism
is to lay down a legal foundation that could protect both the interest
of the public as well as human rights as the basis for law enforcement
to root out terrorism. The strong legal infrastructure that would
become the basis of our national policy as well as actions in fighting
terrorism are based on both national processes as well as results
of international processes. At the national level, Indonesia has enacted
laws and regulations against terrorism on its own as well as from
the ratification of relevant international instruments.
Furthermore, in line with its commitment to combating terrorism, Indonesia
enacted Anti-Terrorism Act no. 15/2003 that covers both the rights
of defendants as well as the rights of the victims. The Act has been
implemented to prosecute the perpetrators of the Bali bombing. Many
assert that the Bali bombing trial, the first trial of any high profile
terrorism case post 9/11, is indeed a fair trial. In this regard,
Indonesia highly appreciates the significant cooperation and support
from friendly countries, especially in the forensic area that have
greatly aided the Indonesian Police to follow the lead and apprehended
the perpetrators.
Fully aware of the linkage between money laundering and terrorist
financing, Indonesia enacted Anti-Money Laundering Act no. 15/2002
which has been recently amended, especially by removing the threshold
of money laundering.
At the regional level, it is worthy
of mention that in May 2002 Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines
signed the Agreement on Exchange and Establishment of Communication
Procedures in combating transnational crime, including terrorism.
Cambodia and Thailand have also become parties to the Agreement and
Brunei Darussalam has just acceded to the Agreement during the ASEAN
Summit in Bali in early October 2003. Furthermore, Indonesia and Australia
hosted the Conference on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist
Financing, in December last year which reaffirmed the regional commitment
in addressing the issue. Indonesia and Australia will also hold a
regional conference on terrorism in early February 2004.
At the international stage, Indonesia currently has become party to
four UN Conventions dealing with international terrorism and signatory
to two others and consistently fulfills its obligation to communicate
its written reports to the UN Security Council's Counter-Terrorism
Committee (CTC) on various national measures in the context of implementing
relevant UN resolutions on terrorism.
Indonesia considers terrorism to be one of the most dreadful and unfortunately
increasing threats to international security, cherished humanity,
human rights, national development, and our children's future. Given
the sophisticated and borderless nature of terrorism, it is extremely
important that international cooperation in many different fields
such as information exchanges, intensified regional and international
law enforcements cooperation, and also extradition, is imperative
as it provides the best opportunity to address it.
Mr. Chairman,
Indonesia is of the view that our current deliberations on a draft
comprehensive convention on international terrorism and a draft international
convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism are of
utmost importance to international concerted measures in combating
terrorism. Indonesia supports the conclusion by consensus of the negotiations
on the two drafts. The adoption of both conventions would send a clear
signal of a united and determined international community in its efforts
to eliminate this scourge.
To conclude Mr. Chairman, the Indonesian delegate stands ready to
cooperate closely with other delegations in ensuring the progress
of our deliberations of the two draft conventions.
I thank you Mr. Chairman.
