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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=370257&rel_no=1"><STRONG>http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=370257&rel_no=1</STRONG></A></FONT></DIV>
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<TD class=s01 colSpan=2><FONT size=4><STRONG>Indonesia Struggles
Against TNI Hegemony</STRONG></FONT></TD></TR>
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<TD class=s13 colSpan=2>Military repression continues despite
commitment to reform</TD></TR>
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<TD class=writer align=left>Benjamin Terrall (bterrall)
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<TD class=date align=right>Published 2007-07-04 13:42
(KST) </TD></TR>
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<TD class=context>Although Indonesia's government has committed to
reforming the Indonesian military (TNI) territorial command structure,
which allows the armed forces to maintain units down to the village level
throughout the country, this apparatus has actually been reinforced in the
name of "counterterrorism."<BR><BR>In late May, Indonesian Marines killed
four farmers in a land dispute. Bambang Widodo Umar, a lecturer at the
University of Indonesia, argued in the <I>Jakarta Post</I> that the
shootings show "TNI structural reform is not working. Conflicts between
the military and civilians are happening everywhere. The TNI should not be
involved in everything. Let law enforcement institutions, such as the
police and the courts, be responsible for law enforcement."<BR><BR><!--Start : TODAY'S TOP STORIES & FROM THE SECTION --><!--The end : TODAY'S TOP STORIES & FROM THE SECTION -->But
an Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) statement "on the occasion of the
International Day in Support of Victims of Torture," which took place on
June 26, indicates that Indonesian police also lean toward excessive force
with a zeal that recalls U.S. military practices at Abu Ghraib and
Guantanamo. In discussing cases in which Indonesian police beat suspects
to death, the Hong Kong-based AHRC wrote, "It is hard for victims of
torture to find ways of obtaining redress, including compensation,
reinstatement and punishment of the perpetrators. The conclusion one may
inevitably draw, is that Indonesia is a state which allows its agents to
torture persons and denies the victim the right to seek redress for such a
crime."<BR><BR>A 2004 law mandated the government's taking over TNI
businesses, but that process is moving slowly at best. In February, Human
Rights Watch said Jakarta's foot-dragging on the issue "undermines
civilian control over the TNI and fuels human rights abuses."<BR><BR>The
<I>Jakarta Post</I> reports, "Almost 70 percent of TNI's annual budget is
derived from its diversified business activities. This year's defense
budget is set at 32 trillion rupees (US$3.63 billion) or 4.5 percent of
the state budget." But though the government initially identified 1,500
businesses that could be classified as military properties, a subsequent
estimate only identified six military businesses as profitable enough to
qualify for takeover.<BR><BR>Thanks to the <A
href="http://www.etan.org/">East Timor and Indonesia Human Rights Network
(ETAN)</A>, and its allies in the U.S. Congress, several provisions in the
United States' new Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2764)
require reporting on progress in human rights, accountability and military
reform in Indonesia, and justice for East Timor, prior to release of some
military assistance funds to Jakarta. Though not as tough as past
legislation, ETAN helped the bill advance. The new language, at least,
puts on the public record a dissent from the Bush Administration's policy
of blanket support for the TNI.<BR><BR>"Military reform in Indonesia
remains stalled and human rights accountability lacking," said John M.
Miller, national coordinator of ETAN. "The Bush administration's policy of
nearly unrestricted military assistance to Indonesia has clearly
failed.<BR><BR>"The House appropriations bill highlights many of the most
needed reforms. In contrast, the Bush administration appears to have no
real strategy to promote basic reform of the Indonesian military," Miller
added. "Jakarta's failure to pursue effective reform underscores the need
for the U.S. to use the only real leverage it has to press for change --
strong and binding restrictions on military assistance."<BR><BR>Miller
pointed out, "Historically, the Indonesian military's worst abuses took
place when the U.S. was most engaged. Only after Congress began
restricting military assistance was the ground laid for Suharto's fall and
East Timor's independence."<BR><BR>A new report from the Center for Public
Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ),
based on more than a year of research, concluded that Indonesia is one of
the largest recipients of post- 9/11 military training and assistance
programs.<BR><BR>The report also makes clear why TNI spokesman Sagom
Tamboen recently commented to <I>The Australian</I> about possible limits
on U.S. military aid in the appropriations bill: "If in fact the
restrictions are put in place, we believe that the government will have
other options … anyway, we're accustomed to limitations."<BR><BR>The ICIJ
found that, through fiscal year 2005, Indonesia was the largest recipient
of Regional Defense Counterterrorism Fellowship Program (CTFP) training.
As the ICIJ wrote, "Operating since 2002 with budgets of $20 million to
$25 million per year, the CTFP appears in many ways nearly identical to
the U.S. government's long-standing IMET program, which also trains
foreign military officers. In fact, many of the courses offered under CTFP
are virtually the same as those offered under IMET."<BR><BR>(Congress has
become highly critical of ongoing Pentagon efforts to receive a blank
check to fund foreign militaries, including Indonesia's, without any of
the conditions which pertain to military aid programs overseen by the
State Department.)<BR><BR>The ICIJ notes, "from 2002 to 2004, the same
Indonesian forces that were prohibited from receiving anything beyond the
most vanilla of IMET courses on human rights were simultaneously receiving
tutelage on 'Intelligence in Combating Terrorism' and 'Student Military
Police Prep' under CTFP, according to Defense Department documents
obtained by ICIJ under a Freedom of Information Act request. In fact, in
2002 and 2003 Indonesia pulled in close to $4 million in CTFP funding,
making the troubled Southeast Asian nation the No. 1 recipient of such
funds."<BR><BR>The ICIJ also found that a U.S. military program for
Jakarta dedicated to "securing strategic sea lanes" cost more than $18
million.<BR><BR>In its 2007 country report on Indonesia, Amnesty
International wrote, "The majority of human rights violations by the
security forces were not investigated, and impunity for past violations
persisted. The Attorney General's Office (AGO) failed to act on two cases
in which the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) had submitted
evidence in 2004 that crimes against humanity had been committed by the
security forces."<BR><BR>Ed McWilliams, Political Counselor at the U.S.
Embassy in Jakarta from 1996 to 1999, and now an independent human rights
advocate, told me, "In a real sense the post-Suharto democratic transition
never transpired in West Papua, where the military and police continue to
employ terror, torture and extrajudicial killing to enforce Jakarta's
rule. While TNI impunity for abuses and corruption remain a problem
throughout the archipelago, it is particularly acute in West Papua. While
the Suharto dictatorship is gone, its hallmarks of repression and abuse
live on in West Papua."<BR><BR>Col. Burhanuddin Siagian last month
responded to West Papuan calls for self-determination by threatening to
"destroy" anyone who "betrays" Indonesia. Two indictments issued in 2003
state that Siagian made speeches threatening to kill East Timorese
independence supporters and was <A
href="http://jsmp.minihub.org/indictmentspdf/Cailacoindnannexeng07feb03">responsible
for the deaths of seven men in April 1999</A>.<BR><BR>McWilliams
commented, "Of the many dark scenarios posed for West Papua's future
perhaps the most dire is the threat of communal conflict as erupted a few
years ago in the Maluku's and Poso. As in those neighboring areas, the TNI
in West Papua is fueling sectarian strife by recruiting largely Muslim
migrants to form paramilitaries loyal to Jakarta's rule. It is also
creating Papuan militias along the lines of those it created to
devastating effect in East Timor. As in the past throughout the
archipelago, the TNI aims to generate communal tensions in West Papua as a
justification for maintaining its presence and for continuing to exploit
the region's vast natural resources."<BR><BR>But dissidents throughout
Indonesia continue to struggle against military hegemony. One example is
the weekly protest in Jakarta by survivors and family members of victims
of TNI atrocities (including the Tanjung Priok shootings of 1984, the
Lampung killings of "militants" in 1989 and the May 1998 shooting of
students) who are demanding an end to impunity for "security"
forces.<BR><BR>Anti-militarist activism within Indonesia alone cannot turn
the tide. Ed McWilliams argues, "The fate of real military reform and
possibly the success of the democratic transition in Indonesia depends
very much on the U.S. Congress's willingness to insist on real reform,
especially to push for genuine civilian control of the military and an end
to TNI impunity. Democrats, now in control of both houses, must understand
that an unreformed TNI, one that supports and has helped create
fundamentalist Islamic militias inside Indonesia, cannot be a credible
partner in the so-called 'war on terror.' The U.S. Congress should heed
the voices of human rights defenders in Indonesia and refuse to bankroll
TNI criminality, abuses and impunity." </TD></TR><!--tr>
<td align="right" class="date"><br>2007-07-04 13:42 (KST)</td>
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