Companies urged to stop paying soldiers

Companies urged to stop paying soldiers

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono has told local and
international companies not to make direct payments to the
military officers guarding their operations as the practice is
illegal.

He said a Ministry of Defense policy issued in 2000 stipulated
that voluntary direct payments for security arrangements should
be disbursed to related government agencies, such as the upstream
oil and gas regulatory agency BP Migas in the case of
contributions made by oil and gas firms.

"When I was first appointed as minister of defense in 2000, I
issued the policy, which does not allow local and international
companies to make direct payments to security personnel who are
assigned to guard the companies' compounds.

"If such practices are continuing, I suppose we must design a
clear policy to stop it, and if there is evidence in the form of
documentation, I guess the military's inspectorate general can
start examining the violation," Juwono told The Jakarta Post on
Thursday.

Juwono's remarks came following reports -- which first
appeared in The New York Times on Wednesday -- that according to
authentic documents, military and police personnel in Papua had
received direct payments worth US$20 million from U.S. gold miner
Freeport-McMoRan between 1998 and 2004 to provide security at the
latter's mine in the conflict-prone province.

The reports were confirmed by Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon, a
former commander of Trikora Military Command overseeing Papua
province, who told the Post that the money from Freeport was used
to cover military expenses, including meals, transportation,
clothing and medication.

He also confirmed that on-duty soldiers received daily
allowances, the total amount of which was set by Freeport.

With the Freeport payments, the military benefits from extra
income as the government also covers soldiers' needs and basic
expenses.

Mahidin, the Army's inspectorate general, is one of the senior
TNI and police officers named in the Times investigative report
as having received many thousands of dollars.

He, however, dismissed the accusation, saying that Freeport
directly provided the funds to officers in the field.

The practice has raised criticism from the National Commission
for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), which has
called on the government to establish an independent team to
examine the cash flow of Freeport's security funds.

"The state has to design a mechanism to supervise the
disbursement of funds in a bid to evaluate the social
responsibilities of the private companies, as well as to examine
whether civilian authorities, the military and police officials
have misused the funds," Kontras coordinator Usman Hamid said.

"It is the responsibility of the state to provide security
with its territory," he added.

Usman further said the close relationship between businesses
and security officers had in some cases led to "criminal
activities."

"The clearest case is seen in the murder of businessman
Boedyharto Angsono, president of a company called PT Arena Sarana
Bakti, in 2003," Usman said, citing the murder case in which Navy
soldiers were found culpable.

Human rights activists have accused security officers in
conflict-prone areas such as Papua and Aceh of intentionally
maintaining instability to secure funding from businesses.

"Even a top-ranking intelligence officer like (Maj. Gen.)
Muchdi (Purwoprandjono) has admitted that the bills for his
official cell phone were voluntarily paid by PT Timber Pacific,"
Usman said.