Asian military instructors review humanitarian law

Asian military instructors review humanitarian law

BANGKOK (JP): Asian military instructors began a meeting
yesterday to discuss ways of promoting international humanitarian
law in the daily practices of their forces.

Brig. Gen. P. Lt. Sihombing, deputy military chief prosecutor
and Brig. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri, deputy assistant for operations to
the Army chief, represent Indonesia in the five-day meeting.

Brunei, Cambodia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, North
Korea, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea,
Vietnam and Thailand are also taking part.

Myanmar declined to attend the meeting of East Asian countries
organized by the International Committee for the Red Cross
(ICRC).

"The armed forces are the most capable organization to advise
and convince the state of the need for implementing the law of
war which basically rules protection of combatants and to
guarantee proper treatment for combatants," Ch. Swinarski, ICRC
legal expert, said.

Harald Schmid De Gruneck, head of the ICRC Regional Delegation
for East Asia, said international humanitarian law should be an
integral part of regular combat training and a key constituent of
training programs at all levels in the chain of command.

The ICRC hopes to create the preliminary conditions for a
structured and comprehensive regional training plan for the
instruction of the law of war in the training programs of the
armed forces in East Asia.

Indonesia ratified four 1949 Geneva conventions on the issue
in 1958 but has yet to adopt two additional protocols enacted
this year.

The conventions have provided guidelines for the Armed Forces'
(ABRI) conduct, Sihombing told The Jakarta Post.

In the absence of the two protocols, Indonesia does not have
the means of applying the Geneva conventions, he said.

The first protocol refers to the protection of victims of
international armed conflicts, while the second refers to the
protection of victims of non-international armed conflicts.

Although Indonesia had not adopted the two protocols, ABRI had
adopted the Geneva Conventions as an internal part of its
discipline and operational conduct, Sihombing said.

ABRI has the Sapta Marga (soldier's code of ethics), the
Soldier's Oath and ABRI's Eight Obligations, all of which serve
as operational guidelines on how to behave in daily life and in
war situations, he said.

Kiki Syahnakri said that neither the Geneva Conventions nor
the Sapta Marga nor the Soldier's Oath were in conflict with war
doctrines.

"War is never unlimited. Every state has the right to choose
its method of waging war and of selecting the means to do it," he
said.

Maj. Gen. Louis Geiger of Switzerland who advises the ICRC on
military matters, told the meeting that there was no such thing
as a "humanitarian war".

"But there are ethical principles which have to be respected
even in wartime. They form the basis for the international
humanitarian law which has been developed and codified in the
course of the past few hundred years," he said.

Sihombing said that generally, soldiers considered the law of
war a constraint.

"We need to provide more information and improve training on
the subject to change such attitudes. Soldiers often see the law
as a restriction, not something they must conform with," he said.
(lem)