Indonesia must seek help to fight 'terrorism'

Indonesia clearly cannot control its security forces, whether or not there was a political conspiracy behind the killings of three United Nations workers in East Nusa Tenggara. Hence the President should use his presence at the UN Summit to seek help, says Mochtar Masoed,, who teaches international affairs at the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University.

Question: What should Indonesia do after the Atambua killings?

Answer: If the attack on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Atambua was considered part of a terror campaign against President Abdurrahman Wahid's government then we can assume there are conspirators.

The fact is they have sophisticated equipment to ferment chaos, like explosives, and the methods to mobilize people.

So the issue here is precisely how, through this tragedy, the government can use its diplomatic skills to mobilize international support against terrorism, which it says is linked to outside parties. We could then get an international agreement to face this security problem.

This would enable us to settle many problems because our president is sure that the roots of the country's many internal difficulties are outside the country. And either the mechanisms or the resources to settle the problems are not available here.

Q: So you agree that what happened was part of a conspiracy?

A: It might be true that the various incidents were aimed at undermining Gus Dur's (Abdurrahman's) government but I don't think it can be simply said that they were well coordinated ...

Security forces here are not well coordinated, particularly the intelligence (unit) ... as was indicated by the abduction of activists in Soeharto's time.

There are likely people remaining from the (1970s) operations related to East Timor, who would be hard to track down.

Q: Isn't foreign support for security a sensitive issue?

A: It doesn't have to mean intervention. Supplies for acts of terrorism include those from outside the country, so we need information on the likely routes (of supply). There can be both formal channels like Interpol and other channels ...

Actually, the government has already started this (through diplomacy). But it needs to intensify foreign support for this purpose, such as helping us with information.

Gus Dur is now meeting with foreign leaders (at the UN Millennium Summit) and he could raise the sympathy of at least close countries like China.

If the incident was related to breakaway elements in the military, the government cannot just go on with consolidation inside the country. It needs foreign support.

There would be risks, like the allegation of not being nationalist, an accusation often used by such elements to resist international support.

In short, because the government cannot control its soldiers can the international community help to solve this problem?

Gus Dur must take up the issue internationally.

Q: What's the likely impact of the Atambua killings on our efforts to overcome problems in Aceh and Irian Jaya?

A: At negotiation tables the government has lost its credibility as it cannot promise that its guarantees of security will be paid attention to by subordinates.

In negotiations with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), for instance, GAM will judge that ... the government is very weak. That's why the humanitarian pause in Aceh can't be effective; the government can't control the soldiers so there's no way negotiating partners can have any respect.

The most basic function of a state is maintaining security. And in the case of Atambua, the state has failed to protect foreigners who worked for the UN humanitarian program.

So surely we could say the failure was led by political intrigue and we could raise conspiracy theories. But in the diplomatic world it is difficult to keep up with these excuses.

In addition, the tragedy was dramatized by the e-mail which was sent by one of the victims (prior to his death) ... Also, we've never had friends at the UN when it comes to East Timor.

Several countries with economic interests in Indonesia that once supported us over East Timor will now have increasing doubts after this West Timor incident ...

International bodies including nongovernmental organizations will increasingly demand protection ...

Also, negotiations involving economic aid may decrease.

After the evacuation of UNHCR staff, we will now have to take care of the refugees ourselves, which total thousands ...

Q: How far can the world accept that the incident was part of a plot to humiliate the President, as he has suggested?

A: The world will demand that we settle this case if it was indeed related to internal political conflicts.

The case is totally different from the death of Australian journalists in the 1970s in East Timor when we could argue it was at a time of war...

Q: Some people, including speaker of the legislature Akbar Tandjung, have said cases related to East Timor are no longer our responsibility and that the incident might have involved East Timorese who were disappointed with alleged cheating in last year's self-determination ballot. Your comment?

A: That's unacceptable, Indonesia is part of the UN and the scene (of the crime) took place in Indonesia. According to any law Indonesia is involved. Defensive attitudes are quite common ... Everyone knew the proindependence side would win if a referendum was held. (Asip A. Hasani)