Govt new policy on Maluku queried

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has been accused of imposing "concealed martial law" in Maluku, following the restructuring of the security authorities in which the Indonesian Military (TNI) has been assigned the day-to-day authority in the strife-ridden province.

Such action was taken after the government's attempts to impose martial law met widespread opposition.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Thursday the government would form a new command body for Maluku to take over security from the provincial police.

However, the composition of the command body, which will be led by an Army major general with a one-star police officer serving as deputy chief, contradicts the law.

According to MPR Decree No. 7 on the role of the Indonesian Military and the National Police, the police are in charge of security, while the military is in charge of defense matters and, if needed, to back up the police.

"The move could be considered concealed martial law because the commanding officer in Maluku will be a two-star general from the TNI, instead of the police," military analyst Kusnanto Anggoro said on Sunday.

He told The Jakarta Post that the plan to shift control of security in the restive province to the military was "illegitimate" under the law.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) also criticized the decision to restructure the command structure in Maluku, saying that, in effect it would be the same as martial law.

"The decision ignores the fact that the involvement of the military is one of the major factors triggering conflict in Maluku," it said in a press statement released on Friday.

Kontras said the measure proves the government has attempted to curtail the authority of the police, as the right force, to oversee security in the troubled islands.

Richard Louhenapessy, a Golkar legislator at the Maluku provincial legislature, agreed and asked why the government had not taken similar measures in Aceh.

"The government is facing a secessionist movement in Aceh, but the police remain in charge of security matters there. It is understandable that local people in Maluku are worried by the government's decision," he told the Post in Maluku on Sunday.

Political and military analysts said they were skeptical of the effectiveness of the government's move in helping to solve the conflict, which has claimed more than 6,000 lives in the past three years.

"Let us wait and see if the plan will really work," Thamrin Amal Tomagola, a sociologist from University of Indonesia, told the Post on Friday.

Thamrin expressed his astonishment with the government's plan as: "Both the Christian and Muslim camps have clearly shown they are ready to stop fighting".

His observation was shared by Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

"It is not impossible that the government will employ the same pattern of resolution in other conflict areas," Ikrar said, referring to other flashpoints in the country, including Aceh and Irian Jaya.

Ikrar said he was skeptical of the effectiveness of such a measure.

The government announced on Thursday evening that the two-star army general, assisted by a one-star police general, would work under the Regional Civil Emergency Administration. The government imposed a state of civil emergency in North Maluku in June 2000.

"The army general will lead both the military troops and the police. By so doing, there will be no confusion about who will give the order," Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said, following a closed-door meeting attended by Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno, Widodo, Army Chief of Staff Endriartono Sutarto and National Police chief Da'i Bachtiar.

Coordination, not weak law enforcement, has been cited as the reason behind a recent outbreak of conflict in the eastern Indonesian island, which put in limbo a Feb. 12 peace deal signed in Malino, South Sulawesi.

The latest brutality occurred when scores of people devastated the Christian village of Soya on April 28, in which more than 12 people were killed.

Thamrin also rejected the planned military exercise of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) in Maluku in July, saying it was against the law.

The government has also recently turned down offers for foreign intervention in the Maluku conflict.

Thirteen members of the European Parliament urged Indonesia to invite UN special rapporteurs to investigate torture cases in the two restive provinces.