Indonesia making progress on rights

Indonesia’s military is largely moving in the right direction on human rights despite the videotaped torture of civilians in restive Papua, a senior US defence official said Tuesday.

Robert Scher, the top Pentagon official handling Southeast Asia, reiterated US concerns that the 10-month sentences handed last month to three soldiers over the abuse in Papua were too lenient. But Scher added: “We do see that there was progress in the fact that this was a trial that was conducted quickly” and was “open and transparent.”