Muladi at odds with Wiranto on militia

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Justice Muladi broke ranks with Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto on Monday over the plan to establish a civilian militia to help the police maintain law and order.

Speaking after attending a hearing with House of Representatives Commission I for security and defense, Muladi said the plan must first be regulated by law. Otherwise, "it would have a basic flaw," he told reporters.

He pointed out that Article 20 of the 1982 law on national defense stipulates that the establishment of Rakyat Terlatih (trained civilians) for security purposes should be regulated by law.

"We don't have the law (on trained civilians) yet, so we suggest that President (B.J. Habibie) and Minister of Defense and Security/Armed Forces Commander (Gen. Wiranto) immediately propose the bill," Muladi said.

One way to meet the legal demands would be by regulating the militia, "if they are considered necessary," through a government regulation in lieu of a law (known as Perpu), he said.

Such government decrees can be introduced in a state of emergency.

However, even "the urgency of the matter should be debated further," Muladi said.

The need to regulate the deployment of a civilian militia through a law was first aired on Monday by Commission chairwoman Aisyah Aminy from the United Development Party (PPP). The previous day, Wiranto announced that the Armed Forces (ABRI) was forging ahead with the plan and would, in the first phase, recruit 40,000 civilians to be assigned to "security disturbance- prone areas."

Muladi said the Ministry of Defense and Security had a concept of the law because the issue was discussed some time ago between the ministry and scholars at Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java, when Muladi was rector of the university.

"I remember that we, together with the Ministry of Defense and Security, once had a seminar on the issue," Muladi said.

At a hearing of House Commission VIII for finance and the state budget on Monday, Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto said the government had allocated Rp 2.58 billion (US$340,000) for the training of the civilian militia in the current fiscal year that ends next March.

Of the amount, Rp 646 million had been disbursed, he said, adding that the government would increase ABRI's budget in the 1999/2000 fiscal year.

"The government is aware that tensions related to the general election in June will lead to a higher cost in maintaining security. Therefore we will support ABRI with sufficient funds," the ministry's Director General of Budget Affairs Darsjah told the hearing.

The 1999/2000 fiscal year budget would take into consideration the rise in price of, among other things, additional equipment, and mobilization costs, he said.

He estimated that ABRI's funding had recently risen on average by 16.5 percent a year, or 66.1 percent in the last five years.

On Sunday, Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung said it would cost the government about Rp 6 million to train one civilian.

Problems

Hendardi of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) said the ABRI plan to deploy a civilian militia was only adding problems to a country already beset with unrest.

"This program will only complicate things further and the deployment of a civilian militia is fertile soil for conflicts between groups of people," Hendardi said in a statement.

Chairman of the Islamic Community Party Deliar Noer echoed Hendardi's stance, and said establishing a national dialog would be more effective in averting conflicts than resorting to the use of a militia.

Wiranto is already facing sharp public criticism over the mobilization last month of 125,000 untrained civilians to help secure the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly.

Human rights activists, legislators and analysts criticized the deployment of these civilian guards as they regularly ended up brawling with residents and student protesters.

In recent months Indonesia has been rocked by violent unrest, including clashes between troops and students, and religious and economic riots that have damaged scores of places of worship.

Wiranto told a media conference on Sunday that the militia would be equipped with shields and batons and be authorized to make arrests, handcuff those they detain and report them to the authorities.

Wiranto, however, dismissed concerns that the militia would be used for certain political interests and to fight the general public. (byg/das/aan)