VZCZCXRO7851
RR RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJS #0099/01 2960614
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 230614Z OCT 09
FM AMCONSUL SURABAYA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0478
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0467
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 0181
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0214
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHJS/AMCONSUL SURABAYA 0490

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 SURABAYA 000099 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP, DRL 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB KTIP ECON PGOV ID
SUBJECT: NGOS RATE SURABAYA'S OFFICIAL EFFORTS TO COMBAT TIP: POLICE 
PRAISED, PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES PANNED 
 
SURABAYA 00000099  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
This Message is Sensitive But Unclassified. Please Protect 
Accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. Representatives of local NGOs gave Surabaya's 
official efforts to combat trafficking in persons a failing 
grade overall.  While generally praising the efforts of the 
police, the NGOs said the police were too under-resourced to be 
truly effective.  The NGOs universally criticized the 
performance of both prosecutors and judges.  Noting the 
improvement in police performance following USG-provided 
training, the NGOs stressed that establishing and training 
special units in both the prosecutor's office and the courts was 
critical to success. The Surabaya City government is 
establishing a Trafficking Task Force to monitor and coordinate 
action between the NGOs, police, prosecutors and courts.  OPDAT 
plans to bring TIP training for prosecutors and police to 
Surabaya in January 2010.  A TIP-focused IVLP comprised of 
police, prosecutors, and NGO reps will occur in FY-2010.  End 
Summary 
 
NGOs Give Police Mixed Marks 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) During a recent meeting with Surabaya Pol/Econ Officer, 
 representatives of several local NGOs active in combating human 
trafficking and assisting its victims observed that the police 
in Surabaya have a better understanding about Indonesian 
trafficking laws and handle trafficking cases better than either 
public prosecutors or judges.  They gave credit to training the 
police have received in recent years for the police's 
performance. In particular, the representatives emphasized the 
usefulness of ICITAP's TIP training during 2006-2007.  This 
training focused on increasing the police's awareness of 
trafficking and the national trafficking law and other related 
regulations and put NGOs and police in the same forum to 
encourage joint cooperation which has been severely lacking in 
the past. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The NGO reps added that Surabaya police further 
developed their counter-TIP capabilities by committing resources 
to the problem.  However, they emphasized that this is not the 
case in other areas in East Java and in the eastern part of 
Indonesia. Fery, a representative of the Genta Foundation, which 
operates a shelter for trafficking victims, observed that a 
police precinct in Trenggalek, East Java, has only one police 
officer to handle every kind of case from murder to illegal 
logging to trafficking.  Fery observed that this lack of 
personnel leaves the police officer with no time to read and 
understand the trafficking law, which negatively impacts his 
ability to enforce it. 
 
Corruption Still a Problem 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU). The NGOs noted that Surabaya police officers were not 
universally committed to combating TIP.  Yoris, a representative 
from the Hotline Foundation, which operates in a major red-light 
district assisting sex workers with health and reproductive 
issues, said that while police in Surabaya understand the 
trafficking law and how to apply it, some of them do not want to 
apply the law due to corruption.  According to Yoris, one method 
for police to get around the Trafficking Law is to instead use 
the Criminal Code, Labor Law, and the Child Protection Law in 
trafficking cases, which results in a lighter sentence for the 
trafficker. While bribery in trafficking cases involving police 
officers could be reported to a designated office in police 
headquarters, the NGO representatives expressed concern that if 
they were to report corruption then police would stop providing 
NGOs information and granting them the access necessary to 
assist trafficking victims. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Nur Lailiyah, a representative from the Women's 
Pro-Democracy Coalition (KPPD), which focuses on providing 
advocacy and assistance for victims of domestic violence and 
trafficking as well as increasing female representation in 
politics, provided a recent example of police corruption in a 
TIP case.  According to her, the Tanjung Perak Police at the 
Surabaya Port apprehended several individuals on suspicion of 
trafficking eleven women from East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) in June. 
These individuals were employees of an employment agency that, 
according to Nur Lailiyah, fraudulently obtained identity 
documents for the eleven women and brought them to Surabaya en 
route to Malaysia, where they had been promised jobs as domestic 
workers.  KPPD helped the victims return home to NTT with the 
assistance of the Human Rights Protection Coalition, an NGO 
 
SURABAYA 00000099  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
based there.  According to Nur Lailiyah, the police released the 
accused traffickers after four days of detention.  She said that 
the police were unwilling to discuss the outcome of the case 
with KPPD.  Separately, a representative from the Human Rights 
Protection Coalition told Pol-Econ Officer that the employment 
agency paid approximately $5,000 each to an undisclosed number 
of police officers to release the accused traffickers. 
 
Prosecutors and Judges Panned 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) In contrast to their mixed evaluation of the Surabaya 
Police, the NGO representatives were universally critical of 
both prosecutors and judges.  The NGOs stated that the number of 
trafficking prosecutions in Surabaya is much lower than the 
number of arrests made by the police.  The disparity between 
prosecutions and arrests is even greater in the rest of Eastern 
Indonesia.  NGO representatives attribute this disparity to 
limited understanding of the trafficking law, limited resources, 
and corruption on the part of both the prosecutor's office and 
the courts. Unlike police units, which have special Woman and 
Children Units to handle trafficking cases, there is no special 
entity or designated office within the prosecutor's office to 
handle trafficking cases.  Furthermore, limited cooperation, and 
significant institutional competition between police, 
prosecutors, and the courts impedes the trafficking eradication 
effort.  Nur Lailiyah said that improvement in police 
understanding and implementation of the trafficking law will 
mean nothing without the support of the prosecutors and judges. 
In the view of these NGOs, providing training for, and 
supporting the establishment of special units in both 
prosecutor's offices and the courts is vital to successfully 
combat TIP in Eastern Indonesia. 
 
Optimistic About the Trafficking Task Force 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) The NGOs expressed optimism about the Surabaya City 
government's commitment to anti-TIP measures.  The Surabaya City 
Government is establishing a Trafficking Task Force as required 
by the Trafficking Law and Presidential Decree # 69/2008. The 
task force will function as a coordinator for advocacy and 
monitoring efforts.  Members of the task force will include 
NGOs, government officials, police officers, port authority 
representatives, airport administrators, prosecutors, and 
judges. Nur Lailiyah said that the role of the task force will 
be significant if it can coordinate and oversee the trafficking 
prevention and eradication efforts of the various stakeholders. 
She said that all of the organizations involved gave a positive 
response to the establishment of the task force, except the 
court, which never sent any representative, and the prosecutor's 
office, which always sent a different official to each 
coordination meeting. 
 
NGO Victim Assistance Efforts 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The NGO representatives all expressed their 
understanding that police have an unwritten expectation that 
NGOs are only responsible for assisting the trafficking victims 
and should not intervene in the legal process. In contrast, the 
NGOs believe that making sure that the legal process runs fairly 
is part of providing assistance to trafficking victims. To 
combat this perception, NGOs work hard to develop personal 
relationships with individual police officers to get more access 
to the legal process. However, the NGOs noted that frequent 
rotations of police officers make this strategy difficult to 
implement long term. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Fery said that assisting victims of trafficking was 
complicated by a lack of funding. The provincial East Java 
government, for example, only allocates $15 per person to return 
trafficking victims to their home villages and only funds skills 
training for 25% of the trafficking victims in the province. The 
NGOs insist that education and training is necessary to help 
trafficking victims become independent economically and avoid 
intimidation from employment agencies. Repatriating victims 
without providing training creates an opportunity for the 
employment agencies to attempt to traffic the victim again. With 
limited government support, NGOs take full responsibility to 
return and provide training to trafficking victims. 
 
Planned USG TIP Programs 
----------------------------------- 
 
 
SURABAYA 00000099  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶10. (SBU)  Post is arranging TIP training in Surabaya for 
prosecutors and police through OPDAT Jakarta in January 2010. 
Post has also developed a FY-10 IVLP team comprised of two 
police officers, a local prosecutor, and a member of an NGO, 
which will focus on combating TIP through visits with U.S. 
officials and institutions responsible for TIP enforcement, 
prosecution, and education.  The Mission Indonesia ICITAP TIP 
program has not received new G/TIP funding and will close in 
March 2010. 
MCCLELLAND