INDONESIA STEPS UP EFFORTS TO PASS TIP

UNCLAS JAKARTA 010924

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DOJ FOR OPDAT ALEXANDRE, LEHMANN, CRAWFORD, LENTZ
STATE FOR G/TIP, INL AND EAP/MTS



E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL EAID ELAB KJUS KCRM ID
SUBJECT: INDONESIA STEPS UP EFFORTS TO PASS TIP
LEGISLATION

REFTEL: JAKARTA 7216


1. (SBU) Summary: Indonesia's Parliament (DPR) has
completed a new draft of its proposed anti-trafficking
legislation. President Yudhoyono has designated the
Ministry of Women's Empowerment (KNPP) and the Ministry
of Law & Human Rights to prepare executive branch
comments on the bill. The Government must submit its
views on the bill to the DPR by September 25 in order
to trigger joint debate on the legislation since its
passage must be mutually agreed to by both branches of
government. Key sources expect the bill to be passed
by the DPR before the end of November 2006. However,
this timeline may not be reliable given the
unpredictable and slow nature of the Indonesian
legislative process. On August 30, Ambassador Pascoe
pushed Presidential Advisor Dino Djalal for speedy
passage of the bill. Post requests that Under
Secretary Burns and other U.S. officials meeting DPR

SIPDIS
Speaker Agung Laksono in Washington in two weeks to
press him for action on the bill. End Summary.

Status of the new anti-trafficking bill
--------------


2. (U) On June 9, the DPR released a new draft Law on
the Eradication of Criminal Acts of Human Trafficking
(PTPPO). The draft included many comments and
suggestions from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
We submitted these comments to Dra. Latifah Iskandar,
Chair of the DPR Special Committee on the PTPPO through
a USAID-funded human trafficking legislation advisor to
the committee and to Laksmie Indrimayah, a member of
the Legal Bureau of the Attorney General's Office (AGO)
by the Mission's Resident Legal Advisor (DOJ/OPDAT).
Significant among the accepted recommendations was
defining "human trafficking" more clearly to include
the three essential elements of the crime (act, means,
purpose). To address the concern of the GOI's
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) the new draft
explicitly applies to Government officials, military
officers, law enforcement and public officials.
Finally, provisions for victim's rights and
consideration of electronic evidence in trafficking
prosecutions have been added.


3. (U) On July 28, President Yudhoyono received the
new draft of the PTPPO, and on August 14 he designated
the Ministry of Women's Empowerment (KNPP) and the
Ministry of Law & Human Rights to coordinate the
Executive Branch's consideration of the PTPPO. By
statute, the Government has until September 25 to
submit comments on the draft. That response becomes
the basis for discussion between the executive and
legislative branches, which must agree on a common text
for a draft bill to become law.


4. (SBU) Although the DPR has made serious
improvements to the text of the PTPPO, the new draft of
the legislation continues to fail to adequately address
debt bondage. While debt bondage has been listed as a
criminal act under the PTPPO, the bill does not include
debt bondage as one of the forms of exploitation which
constitutes the crime of human trafficking. Moreover,
the term "debt bondage" is not specifically defined in
the text of the legislation. While the bill addresses
the falsification of documents in furtherance of the
crime of trafficking, it does not address the
deliberate confiscation of birth certificates,
immigration documents or other official documents to
facilitate the crime of trafficking. DOJ Human
Trafficking advisor and the Mission are coordinating
with the GOI's human trafficking legislation advisor to
advocate for the inclusion of these and other
improvements to the draft.


5. (SBU) The schedule adopted by the Ministry provides
that public hearings and a meeting of the nine
executive branch agencies responsible for implementing
the GOI's anti-trafficking strategy must be completed
before September 10. USAID and DOJ are working with
Deputy Women's Empowerment Minister Sumarni Dawam
Rahardjo to host the public hearings on September 6-7
and to push a series of GOI meetings and actions that
will, hopefully, result in submission of their final
response for Yudhoyono's consideration by September 18.

Dra. Latifah Iskandar confirms that the proposed
schedule is designed to ensure that the DPR receives
the Government's formal response by the September 25
deadline.


6. (SBU) Once the DPR receives the Executive Branch's
formal response, it will initiate joint debate on the
PTPPO. Dra. Sumarni Rahardjo anticipates that joint
debate will begin in earnest after the end of Ramadan
(October 26). Officials at the KPP, AGO and the
representatives of several NGOs have all expressed
their confidence and anticipation that the PTPPO will
be passed by the DPR before the end of November 2006.
Dra. Latifah Iskandar is also confident that the
legislation will pass in the near future, but admits
that the nature of the legislative process makes it
impossible to guarantee a date certain for passage.


7. (SBU) Comment: The aggressive timeline established
by the KPP demonstrates the GOI's commitment to
adopting comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation.
However, historic delays in the DPR's efforts to pass
legislation and the GOI's regular inability to meet its
own stated deadlines warrants caution in anticipating
that the timeline will actually be met. We are pushing
the GOI hard here and request Washington policymakers
to push GOI visitors as well.

PASCOE