Govt asks for additional reinforcements in Aceh

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite public opposition to a state of emergency in Aceh, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked the President to deploy 8,000 more troops to the restive province.

Denying this would constitute the imposition of martial law by stealth in the province, Vice President Hamzah Haz said the government was considering granting the request.

"There is a request which was conveyed during the Cabinet meeting (today). We will discuss this further and decide something next week," Hamzah said when asked whether the government would comply with Susilo's request.

He said that Susilo, fresh from a one-week visit to Aceh, reported on the situation in the province to President Megawati Soekarnoputri and mentioned the proposal to deploy more troops.

"There will be no martial law... but we will discuss the deployment," the Vice President remarked.

After the Cabinet meeting, Susilo when asked about the deployment refused to give any details saying, "It will be announced next week. Everything will be taken into consideration."

The request for reinforcement troops for Aceh immediately drew criticism from observers, who said that it had more to do with the military's businesses than with the interests of the state.

"The presence of this huge military force in the region is merely part of a military project to control the province's rich natural resources rather than to restore peace and security there," Ikrar Nusa Bakti of the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said.

Meanwhile, rights activist Johnson Pandjaitan of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) said that the military was attempting to describe how crucial the operation was so as to force the state to support its financial demands, as well as for political purposes.

He said the government looked unwilling to back down from its intention of stepping up the military approach against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which began waging a rebellion in the mid- 1970s.

Since 2001, the government has issued three presidential decrees approving the military approach in Aceh, with more than 21,000 reinforcement troops posted in the province to back up thousands of police attempting to crush some 3,000 GAM combatants.

The government, along with legislators, reinstated the Iskandar Muda Military Command in February, saying that it was required to shorten the chain of command in the region, which previously came under the Medan-based Bukit Barisan Military Command.

A senior military officer has revealed that of 230,000 soldiers in the army, only between 70,000 and 100,000 of them were combat capable.

If Susilo's bid is approved, almost one third of the army's combat-ready strength will have been deployed to Aceh.

This massive deployment in Aceh, home to some four million people, shows inconsistency at TNI headquarters, which has repeatedly claimed that the number of TNI troops is far from enough to protect the country's population of about 210 million.

Ikrar further questioned TNI professionalism, saying "a professional military should only need three soldiers for every GAM member, but instead the TNI has sent more than seven soldiers for each member of GAM."

"When the military claim they cannot estimate the exact number of GAM members because they are conducting a guerrilla war, they should send intelligence operatives instead of a huge deployment of combatants," Ikrar told The Jakarta Post.

A military source told the Post that the military spent billions of rupiah in funding its operations in the country's troubled regions, including Aceh, Maluku, Poso in Central Sulawesi, and Papua, because "these operations are classified as unprogrammed operations that are not funded by the State Budget."

According to the source, each TNI soldier received a Rp 17,500 (US$1.80) meals allowance. Should he be assigned to join such an operation, he would receive double this allowance.

"The meals allowance for the troops on military operations in Aceh alone cost some Rp 270 billion last year. That, of course, does not include the cost of purchasing ammunition and military equipment," the source said.

Asked how the TNI could fund its operations, the source said: "We recognize a system known as the 'on-top budget'. Its a bit like money from heaven. It's an unlimited budget. During the New Order regime, this budget could be obtained from various sources, including the presidential aid fund".

"So, we can manage to cover our costs and fund our operations as well," the source said.