"Congress should ensure that the same openness standards that apply to civilian courts govern military courts — proceedings and filings. Egregious conduct should not be allowed to hide behind a uniform, and the military justice system must be accountable."
While child sex crimes may not be swept under the rug, the Defense Department does not make it easy for the public to learn about them.
After DeSmit's conviction in January, the Marine Corps summed up the case in two sentences.
"At a General Court-Martial at Okinawa, Japan, Chief Warrant Officer 4 D. E. DeSmit was convicted by a military judge alone of conspiracy to commit sexual assault and rape of children, aggravated sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of a child and possession of child pornography. The military judge sentenced the accused to 144 years of confinement, a reprimand and dismissal," a summary of the court-martial released by the Marine Corps read.
And that's all the service would have said publicly, had the AP not pressed for more.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service initially said releasing its 198-page investigative report on DeSmit would constitute "an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." The AP appealed the denial, and the Navy judge advocate general's office overruled NCIS, declaring the agency's decision overly broad and instructing it to release all material within the report not exempted from disclosure. NCIS investigations, which include evidence from the crime scene and witness interviews, are not court documents but are used by military leaders to decide what action to take against a service member.
NCIS blacked out all the names in the report, including DeSmit's. The AP identified him by the dates and events left in the document.
The effect of the policy is an enhanced degree of privacy for convicted service members not available to civilian defendants. Most records from criminal cases in state and federal courts are public, although the privacy of the victims of violent crime is protected.
The man who hacked a military police member with a sharp weapon at a checkpoint in the capital's Kachukhet on November 10 will be tried under military law, according to the statement of a case.
Corporal Faruk Bhuiyan of military police lodged the case with Kafrul Police Station on Sunday night accusing Jamirul Islam Manik, 32, of the attack, OC Sikdar Shamim Hossain of the police station told The Daily Star last night.
The case was filed under military law, he added.
Jamirul attacked Samidul Islam, 27, with a sharp weapon at the checkpoint. Two army members, who were on duty with Samidul, chased the attacker and captured him with the help of police and locals from a house where he holed up for around 20 minutes, said witnesses.
Samidul suffered injuries in the neck, cheek and fingers. He received treatment at Combined Military Hospital in the city.
The accused was not handed over to police, said the OC.
In a press release on November 10, the Inter Service Public Relations Directorate (ISPR) said a member of Military Police sustained minor injuries as a pedestrian attacked him with a sharp weapon while on duty in the Kafrul area in the morning.
Other members of military police, who were on duty there, detained the suspected attacker. A probe into the incident was underway, added the release.
Something remarkable happened last week in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province.
A military court convicted two soldiers of murder and aggravated assault for their role in the deaths of two civilians on August 28. The court sentenced First Pvt. Makher Rehatta and Chief Pvt. Gregorius R. Geta to prison terms of 12 years and 3 years respectively. Two other soldiers are still on trial for their role in a case in which the four soldiers, who were allegedly drunk, opened fire with assault rifles on a group of Papuans who were holding a local Thanksgiving ceremony in front of a church in Mimika regency.
The case is notable because the perpetrators face punishment. The Indonesian government, which has deployed military forces in Papua since 1963 to counter a long-simmering independence movement, has for decades restricted official access to foreign media, diplomats, and nongovernmental groups in the province, fostering an environment of impunity for military abuses. Those abuses have often gone unpunished due to technical reasons: the 1997 Law on Military Courts allows investigations of military abuses that lack transparency, independence, and impartiality. But Indonesia has also long failed to properly investigate and prosecute alleged serious human rights abuses by members of its military, and in the rare cases where soldiers have been convicted by a military court, the sentences have been extremely lenient.
So last week’s convictions are good news, but at best a start. December 8 marks the one-year anniversary of the killings of five protesters in Papua’s remote town of Enarotali. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that security forces there fatally shot five people during a peaceful protest sparked by the beating of several children by some soldiers the previous evening.
But one year later, those who killed those demonstrators remain at large. That’s despite the fact that there have been three separate official investigations into the shootings: by the police, by the national human rights commission, and by an informal military-and-police effort. The military has not cooperated with the national human rights commission inquiry, and the 1997 law blocks civilian investigators from access to military personnel at the scene of crimes. Not one of those investigations has made public their findings.
That’s not good enough. Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told Papuans three weeks after the killings that he wanted the shooting “solved immediately so it won’t ever happen again in the future … as well as to find the root of the problems.” The failure of Jokowi’s government to keep this promise prompted an unprecedented statement from Papua’s Catholic diocese in July, demanding justice for Enarotali’s victims. Until Jokowi releases the results of those three probes and ensures all those responsible are prosecuted, military injustice in Papua will remain alive and well.
