NO NEED FOR DRACONIAN LAW AGAINST TERRORISM : RIGHTS BODY

Jakarta, Aug 14 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's human rights watchdog said the country does not need draconian laws or regulations like Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA) in its efforts to defeat terrorism.

"We don't need to replace the existing Anti-Terrirsm Law with a more severe one like Malaysia's Internal Securiy Act, to fight terrorism," Ifdal Kasim, chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said here Friday.

He was commenting on the view voiced by a number of national security affairs observers and intelligence community members that terrorism in the country could be fought more effectively if security agencies were legally given wider powers to preempt terrorist activity.

Kasim said the existing anti-terrorism law was already giving "many exclusive powers" to the law-enforcing agencies to fight terrorism, such as the police's authority to arrest, detain, search and question anybody suspected to be a member of a terrorist network.

"In fact, in the hate-filled hysteria of the war on terrorism, even the present anti-terrorism law can still be applied in ways that violate the civil rights of those suspected of links with terrorists but may well prove to be innocent," he said,
He said a more severe law on terrorism would have the potential of undermining the established democratic order and cause the country to regress into its pre-reform situation.

Ifdal reminded all parties in the country that the amended 1945 Constitution provided for a number of civil rights the state must guarantee.

In addition, he said, Indonesia had already ratified the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights through its Law No 12 / 2006 whereby citizens had the state-guaranteed ' right to be investigated fairly and prosecuted properly.