Curbing Indonesia's army

Curbing Indonesia's army

The scale of the tsunami disaster and continuing health risks
in Indonesia's Aceh Province are almost beyond comprehension.

Unfortunately, Indonesia's politically powerful army is not
used to putting humanitarianism first. Imbued with a reflexively
nationalist ideology and obsessed with a counterinsurgency
campaign against armed Aceh separatist groups, army leaders
persuaded government officials to restrict foreign aid workers to
the province's two main cities.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general himself,
needs to make sure his generals understand that they are
accountable to him as the democratically elected leader and that
the human needs of Aceh's people must be Indonesia's most
compelling concern. Until that change is internalized, there can
be no dropping of America's limits on military ties with
Indonesia. Those limits were imposed because of past human rights
violations by the Indonesian armed forces.

In September, Yudhoyono became the first Indonesian leader to
be democratically elected by a direct popular vote, an event that
many hailed as the start of a new era of more responsive
government.

Those hopes now face a critical test. This is the moment for
Yudhoyono to take full charge and insist that the needs of Aceh's
people come first.
-- The New York Times