By Laura MacInnis GENEVA, May 16 (Reuters) - Indonesia's police, armed forces and intelligence services routinely torture and degrade criminal suspects to extract confessions, with almost total impunity for those responsible, a United Nations rights body said on Friday. The U.N. Committee Against Torture said it was "deeply concerned about numerous ongoing credible and consistent allegations" of abuse in the Indonesian justice system. Military officials and "morality police" were also found to use disproportionate force and violence, particularly against women, in the Aceh province and other areas of conflict, the 10-member independent panel said in a report released in Geneva. It cited "grave concerns over the climate of impunity for perpetrators of acts of torture, including military, police and other state officials, particularly those holding senior position." "No state official alleged to have perpetrated torture has been found guilty," the committee said in its 14-page findings, which are not legally binding but carry diplomatic weight. The report expounded upon the concerns raised in November by U.N. torture expert Manfred Nowak, who said torture of detainees in Indonesian police custody was rife despite efforts to combat rights abuses after the ouster of autocratic president Suharto. SAFEGUARDS The U.N. panel called on Jakarta to take immediate steps to uphold legal safeguards for those taken into custody, including ensuring all detained suspects get the right to access a lawyer, notify a relative, be informed of the charges laid against them and be brought before a judge in a timely manner. It told Indonesia to "ensure that all allegations of torture and ill-treatment are promptly, effectively and impartially investigated and that the perpetrators are prosecuted and convicted in accordance with the gravity of these acts. The committee added state officials should publicly announce a zero-tolerance policy for perpetrators of acts of torture and support prosecution. Particular concern was raised about "morality police" in Aceh -- riven by separatist violence for decades before a peace pact in 2005 -- which the panel said had an undefined jurisdiction and unclear supervision by public or state institutions. "The necessary legal fundamental safeguards do not exist for persons detained by such officials, including the absence of a right to legal counsel, the apparent presumption of guilt, the execution of punishment in public, and the use of physically abusive methods (flogging, caning, etc)," it said. "The punishments meted out by this policing body have a disproportionate impact on women," the committee added, also raising alarm over a high incidence of rape and sexual violence committed by the military in conflict areas, and sexual abuse and forced labour against female migrant workers in the country. The U.N. panel stressed that attacks on ethnic and religious minorities remained a problem in Indonesia, a former Dutch colony that is home to the world's largest Muslim population. It further called on Jakarta to fully cooperate with international efforts to investigate, prosecute and extradite those responsible for abuses in East Timor, a former Indonesian territory that became independent in 2002. (Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Janet Lawrence)
Workers load boxes of food and medicine into a plane bound for Myanmar at a military airbase in Jakarta May 8, 2008. Indonesia is sending humanitarian aid needed for the victims ...
