Plan for new military commands evokes caution

Plan for new military commands evokes caution

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights said on
Thursday it would be "very cautious" in supporting the plan to
establish eight new military commands throughout the country.

"It is not clear what the objectives are. It can easily be
misunderstood that any kind of expansion of territorial command
is going to be contrary to the trend of phasing out the
military's role in politics," rights commission chairman Marzuki
Darusman told The Jakarta Post.

"So we would be very cautious in allowing this to get out of
hand. The principle of course would be to do away with the
territorial commands altogether," he said.

Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Wiranto said in May
new military commands would be established in Sumatra, Nusa
Tenggara, Maluku and Kalimantan to "maintain the country's
defense, security and unity".

He said "the past mistake of allowing the duplication of
functions between territorial commands and intelligence
operations led to extreme excesses of rights violations involving
local armed forces personnel".

During the ironfisted rule of former president Soeharto,
territorial commands were his main tool to control local
politics, Marzuki said.

"In the past, territorial commands played a central role and
provided the military with various springboards to control local
politics," he said.

Wiranto said earlier the new commands would be established in
phases through 2004 because the plan required detailed
preparation of human resources, tools and other facilities.

A new military command in the riot-torn province of Maluku was
established on May 15. At least 350 people in the province died
in violent clashes between Muslims and Christians which erupted
in the provincial capital of Ambon in mid-January.

Marzuki said forming new military commands in Maluku and
other troubled areas such as Aceh was an "exception" because a
military presence was "clearly needed".

"In the case of Aceh, the territorial command there will be
able to help Army personnel avoid excessive actions and violence.
The perception of the Acehnese is that if the territorial command
was there, it would have been able to control the excesses
because controlling the actions of Army personnel from Medan was
very difficult," he said.

The military command in Aceh is currently under the Bukit
Barisan Command based in the North Sumatran capital of Medan.

"There was a need for a local territorial command (in Aceh) to
control the Army personnel and not allow rogue elements to
operate in the area without direct supervision from the command,"
Marzuki said.

Aceh has seen a decade of antiseparatist military operations
against the Free Aceh Movement.

The military operations were ended last year amid accusations
of widespread human rights abuses by the military. These alleged
abuses have fueled widespread hatred of Jakarta and the armed
forces among the Acehnese.

Violence in the province since early May has left more than 80
dead, including 41 civilians shot dead by soldiers in North Aceh
on May 3.

"But our stance would be to eventually phase out the
territorial commands and give back the function of integrating
the territories to the government, because that is a normal
function of any civilian government," Marzuki said.

He said territorial and intelligence functions had given the
military "an almost total monopoly on politics and information".

"These are normal civilian functions that need to be given
back to the civilian government," he said. (byg)