Activists oppose ABRI's order to shoot on sight
JAKARTA (JP): Observers urged the Armed Forces (ABRI) on Monday to reconsider its shoot-on-sight order against rioters, saying that capturing the masterminds of recent unrest would do more to improve the military's image.
Albert Hasibuan of the National Commission on Human Rights said the order must not be implemented arbitrarily, while Amien Rais of the National Mandate Party outspokenly said the order was against the law.
Albert pointed out how the destruction inflicted on humans and properties in recent incidents of unrest showed that the masterminds must have well-organized networks and were powerful.
"ABRI has no other alternative but to investigate the riots thoroughly and arrest any mastermind," Albert said after attending the opening ceremony of a seminar on military-civil relations here on Monday.
Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto on Saturday told his men to shoot on sight anyone found to be provoking and masterminding riots or looting and killing. National Police Chief Gen. Roesmanhadi responded on Sunday in Semarang that police officers who did not dare to open fire on rioters would be dismissed.
Albert said the military should show that it was committed to investigating and revealing who or which parties were behind the unrest.
Amien concurred. "In principle, I agreed with ABRI campaigns to arrest criminals who commit murder and loot with violence. (But) I want to insist that the shoot-on-sight order is against the law," he said after installing PAN executives in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, on Monday.
He shared Albert's observation that ABRI had an adequate intelligence network to detect who and which groups were behind any unrest. They should be arrested and brought to court in order to restore people's sense of security.
The latest unrest occurred in Maluku where 16 spots, especially the capital city of Ambon, reportedly erupted in violence almost simultaneously last month. Following the spreading of rumors that churches and mosques had been burned, Muslims and Christians began to attack and kill each other and destroy properties.
Albert, who visited Ambon last week, conceded that the province was prone to religious clashes and rioting persisted because there was never any strong religious coexistence.
"The religious harmony there was built upon a weak and fragile foundation," he said.
At least 95 people were killed, thousands of buildings were burned down, 127 cars and 98 motorcycles were damaged in the riots that rock the provincial capital beginning on Jan. 19.
Rights activists grouped in the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) also said shooting on sight should be a last resort, for police officers only, in handling crime.
Lt. Gen. Agum Gumelar, the governor of the military's National Resilience Institution (Lemhanas) think tank, said the recent riots all displayed a similar pattern which indicated that they were masterminded by a well-organized extremist power.
"The extremist power has been organized so well that ABRI has difficulty detecting it," he said.
Wiranto dismissed the observation, saying it was impossible for an extremist power to exist within the government as a whole.
"It is impossible," he said, after receiving Minister of Justice Muladi at his office on Jl. Merdeka Barat in Central Jakarta on Monday.
Separately, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Haryono Suyono and ministers under his coordination reported to President B.J. Habibie on Monday the results of their visit to Ambon last week.
Haryono said refugees were gradually moved to healthier shelters; food and medical supplies had been sent; and so far there were no outbreaks of diarrhea. This morning Minister of Health Farid Anfasa Moeloek is to send another medical team to the riot-stricken areas, while the rebuilding of houses will start this week. (rms/29/prb/swe)