Govt asks for additional reinforcements in Aceh

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.