Government urged to disband armed groups

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the absence of clear regulations, pressure is mounting on the government to disband groups of armed civilians as part of the attempt to stop continuing violence in the country.

Asmara Nababan, secretary-general of the National Commission on Human Rights, and Usman Hamid of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), expressed pessimism about whether the government would really disband the armed civilian groups, considering "there are no clear regulations banning the establishment of these militias."

"We have long been asking the government to issue clear regulations over these armed civilians as they have the potential to commit human rights violations.

"Once we proposed to the government that they insert some articles into the Defense Law or National Police Law banning civilians from undergoing paramilitary training. But, there's been no response till now," Asmara said.

Since the downfall of president Soeharto in 1998, various armed civilian groups have been established, with some being designed to defend certain political powers or the political interests of certain groups.

East Timor saw the establishment of pro-Jakarta militias in 1999, which were believed to have been up by the Indonesian Military (TNI), and which were tasked with "maintaining the country's integrity amid mounting pressure to let East Timor -- the former Indonesian province -- become an independent country."

In the same year, then Armed Forces (ABRI) chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto set up the Pamswakarsa militia group to guard the People's Consultative Assembly special session.

Members of the militia group then fought with civilians. Similar consequences have occurred as a result of the security forces failure to control hard-line militia groups Laskar Jihad and the Islam Defenders' Front (FPI).

On Monday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu said there was no excuse for the existence of armed civilian groups.

Ryamizard was commenting on an earlier statement by Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who hinted that some armed civilian groups, believed to be Laskar Jihad and the FPI, were currently conducting paramilitary training near the capital city of Jakarta.

But, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saleh Saaf was reluctant to comment on Ryamizard's plan to disarm the armed civilian groups, saying that "the police could only monitor them and that's exactly what the police do."

Meanwhile, Usman Hamid demanded that the security authorities disclose "the reasons why they established armed civilian groups."

He said that should military officers evade their responsibilities by merely disbanding the groups, "violence will continue to exist as other similar groups may be established in the future."