Indonesia’s support for genocide case against Israel in ICJ overshadowed by its dark history

The crackdown against primarily Communist Party of Indonesia members led to the deaths of up to a million people during the Sukarno era, while the massacre in East Timor caused the deaths of at least 100,000 people when Suharto was in power, according to estimates by historians.

Many Indonesians and analysts have pointed out that the country has yet to ratify the 1948 Genocide Convention due to the two historical incidents and other past atrocities, hence tainting its endorsement of South Africa’s case.

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi addressed the Genocide Convention issue on Tuesday. She said even though Indonesia was not a signatory, it supported South Africa’s move to denounce Israel’s violations of the convention at the ICJ.

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According to Retno, while Indonesia could not sponsor South Africa’s case in The Hague, it had “actively participated” by giving its legal advisory opinion to the ICJ as a member of the United Nations.

Retno also highlighted Indonesia’s diplomatic efforts to stop the war in Gaza, including “garnering support for Palestine” in multinational forums such as the UN Security Council, the Global Refugee Forum, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League.

Many Indonesian social media users have pointed to Indonesia’s history of alleged war crimes to explain why the country was not providing more help officially to South Africa’s case, while neighbouring Malaysia, which is a party to the Genocide Convention, has given far more support on the matter.

“What else would be the reason? Because Indonesia has been the perpetrator of genocide against citizens due to their political identities, namely [against members of the] Indonesian Communists Party, which started in 1965 and its impact continues to be felt to this day,” X user @jolayjali wrote.

User @ajiehatadji said, “Why hasn’t Indonesia ratified the Genocide Convention? In my opinion, with ratification, Indonesia would have an obligation to resolve & prosecute the parties involved in the 1975 East Timor Massacre.”

Dark history

Annie Pohlman, a senior lecturer in Indonesian Studies at Australia’s University of Queensland, said in her 2016 book, Indonesia and the UN Genocide Convention: The Empty Promises of Human Rights Ritualism, that Jakarta had been hesitant to ratify the convention due to “its long and dark history of mass atrocity crimes”.

The Genocide Convention is a human rights treaty adopted by the UN on December 9, 1948, in response to the atrocities committed during World War II such as the Holocaust. Under the convention, genocide is classified as an international crime and individual persons and states violating it can be tried by state or international penal tribunals.

Pohlman also argued that in the years following Indonesia declaring its independence in 1945 under Indonesian leaders Sukarno and Suharto, there was never a time when it was feasible politically for Jakarta to sign the convention.

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Under Suharto’s 32-year rule, Indonesian troops were also alleged to have committed atrocities during the invasion and occupation of East Timor and military operations in Aceh and Papua. Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in 1975 killed “50,000 people or perhaps 80,000”, former Indonesian foreign minister Adam Malik told Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald in 1977 – far lower than the estimates of many historians.

“As such, it was ever unlikely that such a strong international human rights instrument as the UN Genocide Convention would have been even considered, let alone tabled for signing under either Suharto or Sukarno,” Pohlman wrote.

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Since Indonesia transitioned into democracy following the resignation of Suharto in 1998, it has emerged as a human rights leader in Southeast Asia. Jakarta has been vocal in its support for restoring democracy in Myanmar following the 2021 military coup, and it has been a long-time supporter of a two-state solution to solve the Gaza conflict. However, it continues to refuse to ratify the Genocide Convention or the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court.

“To some extent, I think Indonesia has been quite advanced as the leading human rights promoter at the regional level. But on the global level, there’s still not much confidence in that sense,” Lina Alexandra, head of the international relations department at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia, told This Week in Asia.

Lina said “it’s really sad” that Indonesia could not legally throw its weight behind South Africa in its case against Israel in the ICJ. The case should be seen as a “starting point for Indonesia to think about whether we should step up and become part of the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute”, the Indonesian said.

“We should not be afraid that [the Genocide Convention] is going to be used against us, as long as we are doing the right thing. The fact that we are still not a party to it makes it very, very difficult for us to do more [for the people in Gaza],” she added.