Independent E. Timor remains Indonesia's stumbling block
Independent E. Timor remains Indonesia's stumbling block
By Lela E. Madjiah
KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara (JP): Former president B.J. Habibie
was naive when he thought that letting go of East Timor would
mean an end to Indonesia's problems.
Habibie then argued that getting rid of the predominantly
Catholic province would help Indonesia regain direly needed
credibility in the international world.
East Timor did gain its independence, although Dili is now an
"extension" of Darwin, with its telephone area code similar to
that of the Australian city. Indonesia's problems, meanwhile,
persist and East Timor remains a stumbling block to this
predominantly Muslim country.
The latest hurdle comes with the news of a lawsuit filed
against Lt. Gen. Johny Lumintang, the governor of the National
Resilience Institute (Lemhanas). The suit was filed in U.S.
District Court on March 28 by the Center for Constitutional
Rights (CCR), the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) and
James Klimaski on behalf of several victims of the East Timor
mayhem.
Legal papers filed in court cited a telegram signed by Johny,
then deputy Army chief, and sent to former Udayana Military
commander overseeing security in Bali, East and West Nusa
Tenggara Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri and other commanders just hours
before the agreement to conduct the ballot was signed at the
United Nations on May 5.
The telegram ordered commanders to plan a crackdown should the
East Timorese vote in favor of independence. This was to include
"a plan to move to the rear and evacuate if the second option is
chosen", the East Timor Action Network (ETAN), said in a
statement issued last Friday.
In Singapore, Adm. Dennis Cutler Blair, commander in chief of
the U.S. Pacific Command, said on Friday that military ties
between the United States and Indonesia could only be resumed if
those responsible for the East Timor violence were brought to
justice.
The lawsuit and Adm. Blair's "threat" are clear indications
that the U.S. and its Western allies are using East Timor to put
pressure on Indonesia. And they will do almost anything to
discredit Indonesia, as is evident from last month's visit to
Jakarta by the chief of the United Nations Transitional
Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) Sergio Viera de Mello and
UNTAET Force Commander Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos. The two
UNTAET officials lodged complaints with President Abdurrahman
Wahid and Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Adm. Widodo AS relating
to 16 incidents.
The complaints were a laughing stock among Indonesian
officials. In the first place, the incidents, blamed on former
prointegration fighters, occurred inside East Timor, which is
"heavily" guarded by the supposedly professional UN Peace Keeping
Force (UNPKF) armed with sophisticated weapons. Two of the "so-
called incidents" were nothing but information on "possible
incidents", in other words, of "incidents" that had not yet
occurred and would probably never occur.
"So far border violations are committed by cows that cross the
border illegally," East Nusa Tenggara deputy governor Yohanis
Pake Pani said last Wednesday.
De Mello renewed his complaints last Wednesday and demanded that
Indonesia move prointegration fighters from the border and
demobilize them. However, he turned down a three-point proposal
from Udayana chief Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri, who proposed an
exchange of liaison officers, the setting up of joint border
posts and a joint border patrol.
If approved, the proposal would allow TNI to place liaison
officers in East Timor and the UNPKF would have their liaison
officers in East Nusa Tenggara. The proposed joint border posts
and border patrols would also improve security operations.
"I'm baffled. He wants TNI to help stop the incursions into
East Timor but he turned down the proposal," Kiki told The
Jakarta Post in an interview last Wednesday. "Maybe they are
afraid that our presence on the East Timor side of the border
would be an obstacle to whatever design or scheme they have in
mind."
Kiki's suspicions were justified by reports of illegal entry
into the Indonesian territory by Australian members of UNPKF.
The border violation occurred on March 22, when a group of
Australian troops entered Silawan village, some 150 meters inside
East Nusa Tenggara.
The Australian troops denied having violated the border limit,
and even accused TNI of inaccuracy in defining the border limits.
"The river there is the border and the troops were on our side
of the river," said Kiki, who lodged a protest with UNTAET
regarding the illegal entry.
Kiki suspected the illegal entry was a provocation to creating
new problems.
"The Australians were probably hoping to provoke TNI into
clashing with them. After all, the illegal entry occurred only
three days after Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer
warned of possible border clashes," Kiki told the Post.
Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono, meanwhile, warned that
the international world would continue to judge Indonesia in the
light of the post-ballot situation in East Timor and along the
border.
"We all know that on April 3 or 4 the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) is expected to announce its decision on the
disbursement of its financial aid to the Indonesian government.
The aid is very important for the state budget," Juwono said in
Kupang last Wednesday during a meeting with East Nusa Tenggara
officials shortly before he met with UNTAET chief Sergio de Mello
and UNPKF commander Lt. Gen. Jaime de los Santos.
Among those present at the meeting were East Nusa Tenggara
deputy governor Yohanis Pake Pani, East Nusa Tenggara Police
chief Brig. Gen. Yusuf Sudradjat and Udayana Military chief Maj.
Gen. Kiki Syahnakri.
"We must be very, very careful lest the border disputes be
made an excuse to delay the international aid. This (border
issue) is no mere political and security issue," said Juwono.
He also cautioned against foreign use of every incident as a
political commodity and against foreign media reports on border
incidents as a form of information war.
"We must be aware of the vanity of the United Nations. It does
not take blame. There is an impression that we are always the one
to blame while the UN is faultless," Juwono said.
"If they are not competent and prove to be inefficient in
providing security in the area under their jurisdiction, they
should not blame us," he said, referring to UNTAET's complaints
of the 16 incidents.
Juwono said Australia and New Zealand, two of the three
nations whose troops were stationed along the border, did not
show friendly attitudes toward Indonesia.
"We do not have the authority to ask the UN to replace them,
but we will closely monitor the development on the border and as
mentioned earlier by the (Udayana) chief, every incident that
occurs there will be blamed on us. But we must stand firm when we
are convinced that we are right," he said.
The only way for Indonesia to disengage itself from the East
Timor problem seems to be to say no to IMF aid. After all, nearly
half of the IMF funds never reach the Indonesian people, with
quite a significant percentage returning to IMF coffers to pay for its
consultants and so-called studies even before the money reaches
Indonesia, and another large chunk lost in the hands of
Indonesian bureaucrats.
The problem is that Indonesians are not united on this issue
and not all are willing to share the burden of having to live
without IMF or other international aid.
Indonesia should also reconsider its military cooperation with
the United States, especially since President Abdurrahman Wahid
said on March 25 that he wanted to reduce Indonesia's dependence
on arms procurement from the United States or any single foreign
country.
"They (the United States) also need us. Without us, security
in this region is not guaranteed," he said.
Indonesia should also realize that the U.S. needs access to
TNI and it can only do so openly and officially when the two
countries resume military cooperation. It is as much in the
interest of the U.S. as it is in Indonesia's to resume military
cooperation and Indonesia should not allow the U.S. to continue
to use the East Timor issue to blackmail it.
The writer is a Jakarta-based journalist.