ABRI's homework

The Armed Forces (ABRI) seems to need time to consolidate itself before it carries out thorough investigations into the three dramatic national tragedies which occurred recently. These are the shootings of the Trisakti University students, the disappearances of political activists and widespread riots which were marked by looting, arson and rape. All took place during former president Soeharto's regime and many people believe that service personnel were involved in organizing all of them.

While the authorities still have to establish the truth around these cases, one thing is sure: they have not only tarnished our image in the eyes of other nations but provoked questions about the government's sincerity and capability to solve them.

President B. J. Habibie, who since the beginning of his presidency has believed that the solution of the problems is something on which the credibility of his government depends, ordered the ABRI leadership to investigate all three cases.

The good news that followed was that as the military arrested suspects in the Trisakti shootings and started to process them before a military tribunal many people were optimistic that the military would be able to uncover the truth fairly and promptly.

But pessimism returned as the slow progress of the kidnaping case gave the impression that some people remain untouchable by the law. The picture was complicated even further by a report from the United States saying that the Pentagon had suspended its Combined Exchange and Training program for members of the Indonesian Army after the Americans found it was responsible for the activists' disappearances. The story was printed by Washington Post and was widely quoted by international news agencies.

Meanwhile back home, the National Commission on Human Rights has heard about the gruesome rape of innocent women and girls which accompanied the looting and arson in Jakarta on May 13 and May 14. It has also emerged that the bloody riots were clearly organized -- they occurred abruptly in many nooks and crannies of the capital city and caught almost everyone by surprise.

The Armed Forces put the death toll from the mayhem at 499 in Greater Jakarta alone but the commission's findings said that at least 1,118 people were killed.

To shed some light on this dark page of our history, Habibie has asked Indonesians to exercise the virtue of patience and let ABRI conclude its internal consolidation. Although the President did not explain the meaning of the phrase, what we should do is remind him that the failure of ABRI to uncover the truth will push him further away from obtaining the credibility he badly needs.

But the more tragic thing is that the failure to solve the three cases will also worsen our economic and political situation.

All Indonesians will watch how far ABRI will be sincere and courageous in solving the cases because it is no easy task. We believe the ABRI leadership will face a lot of difficulties in its mission. The government should set up a completely independent national committee, comprising ABRI, the National Commission on Human Rights and non-governmental organizations, to investigate the cases.

However, to a certain extent, we do not need to blame any party because we have inherited all these problems from Soeharto, who is in the same frame of mind as Louis XVI, the French monarch who is well known for saying Apres mois, le deluge (After me, disaster).