Send in the marines

The government has finally decided to do what it should have done months and months ago: Disarm the gun-totting pro-Indonesia militias who have been terrorizing and killing not only East Timorese refugees but also international humanitarian workers. The decision announced on Monday came just three days after the United Nations Security Council condemned the deaths of three UN workers in the West Timor town of Atambua last week.

The fact that it only took three minutes for the 15-member Security Council to unanimously endorse the resolution against Indonesia on Friday shows how little international sympathy and support the country enjoys over the Atambua killing.

Resolution No. 1319/2000 reads in part that Indonesia must "take immediate additional steps to disarm and disband the militia immediately, restore law and order in the affected areas in West Timor, ensure safety and security in the refugee camps and for humanitarian workers, and prevent cross-border incursions into East Timor."

That international trust in Indonesia is very low is also reflected by the Council's decision to dispatch a mission to Indonesia to ensure compliance with the resolution, and to ask Secretary General Kofi Annan to report back in a week's time.

The promise to disarm the militias has raised the question of what took the government so long to realize the dangers that these amateur soldiers pose, not only for the people who live and work in West Timor but for the entire nation. The international condemnation and the ensuing Security Council resolution are clearly a humiliation that Indonesia could have done without at a time like this when it needs all the international support it can get to survive the economic and political crises in hand.

Just when we thought the nation was starting to put the East Timor nightmare behind it, Indonesia now has to start all over again to win back the goodwill of the international community. The incident has unnecessarily created additional work for our diplomats abroad when they could be devoting their time and resources to other campaigns, like securing support for the country's efforts to rebuild the economy or keeping the nation united against the forces of disintegration.

As a responsible member of the United Nations, Indonesia must comply with Resolution No. 1319/2000. Even without international prompting, however, Indonesia should have disarmed the militias the moment it became clear in September last year that the government had lost the 24-year campaign to annex East Timor. Looking back, the Indonesian Military should never have armed the militias in the first place. While we cannot change the past, we can and should amend the errors of the past.

The East Timorese militias were essentially the creation of the Indonesian Army as part of its campaign to control the territory during the annexation. The militias were notoriously savage and trained to kill anyone opposing the annexation. They put their indoctrination and training into practice to such a devastating degree that they drove away almost the entire population of East Timor and razed towns and villages to the ground after losing the vote to pro-independence supporters in a UN-sponsored ballot in August 1999.

Since then, these gangs of thugs have taken their campaign into the refugee centers scattered through West Timor. They have terrorized and prevented those who wish to return to East Timor, and their campaign often turned on the UN aid workers who were helping to repatriate the refugees. What is most appalling about all this is that these militias have acted with impunity in the same way that they got away with the murders of last year.

The local police are clearly not prepared to deal with the Army-created militias who are far better equipped. Although fully in charge of the security affairs in West Timor, the police cannot move against them without the consent of the powerful Army.

The Army, as the chief sponsor of the militias, has continued to display a lack of political will to disarm and disband their puppet soldiers. One can still recall the chilling response from military leaders when they were criticized for failing to stop the militias' brutal attacks against unarmed East Timorese civilians last year: These militias were their comrades-in-arms because they had fought together in the East Timor military campaign. Army soldiers were reluctant to take action because of "psychological barriers" even as the militias were committing those atrocities.

Given such a state of affairs, it is doubtful whether the government's latest promise to disarm the militias could really be carried out effectively, or whether it was just another act of lip service to please the world community without any real intention to see it through. We certainly have not seen any clearly laid out programs on how the disarmament process would be conducted, or how soon the process would be completed.

There is one solution that could be seen as a way to break the impasse of the militia problem in West Timor: Send in the marines. Since they have less emotional attachment to these militias and are better equipped than the police, members of the Marines Corps, which is part of the Indonesian Navy, are likely to do the job much more effectively and more professionally than any other force available in the country.