Muladi at odds with Wiranto on militia

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)