Babinsa 'crucial' to help stamp out terrorists

Babinsa 'crucial' to help stamp out terrorists

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The role of the Babinsa, non-commissioned officers assigned to
villages, is again in the spotlight, following the Indonesian
Military (TNI) chief's suggestion they be reinstated to fight
terrorism.

On Wednesday, just four days after last Saturday's bombings in
Bali killed at least 21 people, Gen. Endriartono Soetarto
suggested the TNI reinstate it's territorial command, including
the Babinsa, to help the National Police track down the
terrorists.

TNI Spokesman Maj. Gen. Tohirin Sugarda said the military was
drawing up an implementation plan to allow TNI personnel
nationwide to assist police.

While the details over the plan are still sketchy, military
officers in the field have voiced support for the strengthening
of the Babinsa.

Assigned down to the village level, the Babinsa were once the
vanguard of the TNI's territorial command, living side-by-side
with the local community, and monitoring and reporting suspicious
residents to the intelligence authorities.

But, the role of Babinsa was curtailed after the reform of the
TNI began in 1999. When the military was separated from the
police in that year, many of the roles of military intelligence
and community policing were given to police personnel. The
Babinsa's duties were then confined to collecting strategic
intelligence data.

"The territorial command, including the Babinsa is still
there, but the Babinsa's role is now limited. They are no longer
involved in social and political activities, and now their duties
are largely confined to administrative ones, such as recording
population data in certain subdistricts, how many boats local
fishermen posses and other related social, economic and
intelligence data," Gen. Tohirin told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The limited, some say dormant, role of the Babinsa is
compounded by the lack of personnel and poor equipment on the
ground. A senior military officer in Lampung, Lt. Col. Dadi, said
there were only around 800 Babinsa operatives still working in
Lampung province, while the ideal number should be about 2,000.

Many Babinsa lacked motorcycles or walkie-talkies, making
their use to the military limited, said Dadi, the chief of
territorial section at the Garuda Hitam Military Command in
Lampung province.

Meanwhile, although the TNI have long argued that the role of
the Babinsa was instrumental in the fight against terror,
however, NGO activists and House of Representatives legislators
have reiterated that any reactivation of the territorial command
should be rejected. The measure would only increase abuses of
locals, especially striking factory workers, and could cause
further violations of human rights, said Attoillah, an executive
with the Surabaya Legal Aid Institute.

With additional reporting of Oyos Saroso in Bandarlampung, Indra
Harsaputra in Surabaya and Suherjoko in Semarang