Syahnakri to prioritize repatriation of East Timorese refugees
Syahnakri to prioritize repatriation of East Timorese refugees
By Lela E. Madjiah
The following article is based on an interview with Maj. Gen.
Kiki Syahnakri, Operation Assistant to Army Chief of Staff.
Syahnakri is scheduled to be installed as chief of Udayana
Military Command, overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara,
in Denpasar on Saturday. He is replacing Maj. Gen. Adam R. Damiri
who is going to be installed Operation Assistant to General
Affairs Chief of the Indonesian Military (TNI).
JAKARTA (JP): It seems that Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri is
destined for tough stints.
In September 1999 he was sent to East Timor and given two
weeks by then Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Wiranto to
restore security and order in the ravaged territory.
"This is a near-impossible mission and I doubt that even a
Schwarzkopf could accomplish it," Syahnakri said in an interview
with The Jakarta Post a few days after assuming command of TNI
forces in East Timor following the imposition of martial law in
the territory on Sept. 9.
Indeed, what confronted him in the territory was beyond
control. All Syahnakri could do was try to curb the acts of
violence and destruction committed by prointegration supporters
in reaction to the Aug. 30 vote for East Timor's independence.
Despite the difficulty of the situation, some semblance of
order had returned to parts of East Timor when he handed over
control of security in the territory to the International Force
for East Timor (Interfet) on Sept. 27.
"The TNI leadership stated that he succeeded in performing his
duties, given the constraints that he faced," an Army officer
told the Post.
Tough, new problems confront Syahnakri today, and high on his
agenda is the repatriation of East Timorese refugees, whose
prolonged presence in East Nusa Tenggara has negative security
implications.
There remain around 200,000 refugees in various refugee camps
in the western half of Timor island and neighboring islands.
"The refugees face a lot of hardships, including financial
constraints. Many of those who own cars or motorbikes are renting
their vehicles to earn money, and in doing so are threatening the
livelihood of local inhabitants. This can pose a security problem
in the long run, not to mention other obstacles," said Syahnakri,
who served as Dili military commander for eight months in 1994-
1995.
The refugees are also causing social jealousy among the native
population, who are not much better off than the East Timorese
and have to shoulder the burden of sharing what little they have
with the refugees, while the latter receive aid from the
Indonesian government and local and international organizations.
"The government has decided to stop the aid to the refugees in
January, and it is our job to try to return them (to East Timor)
before this deadline," said Syahnakri, a 1971 graduate of the
Armed Forces Academy (Akabri).
The East Nusa Tenggara administration has given three options
to the refugees.
"The first option is for them to return to East Timor and take
part in the UN-led transitional administration. The second is to
remain in Indonesia and join the transmigration program. The
government has allocated land for those who choose this second
option. The third option is for them to be accommodated in a
transitional resettlement area similar to the resettlement area
in Galang Island for Vietnamese refugees. After a certain period
they will be given several options, including applying for
citizenship in countries other than Indonesia," said Syahnakri.
He added, however, that United States Ambassador to the United
Nations Richard Holbrooke did not seem to favor the third option,
which he said would be too costly.
"I tend to agree with him about the third option. I personally
believe the refugees, including the prointegrationists, should
all return to East Timor. The transitional authority in East
Timor will definitely accommodate their aspirations," he said.
Syahnakri accompanied Holbrooke to Dili on Nov. 22. Holbrooke
also visited refugee camps in Atambua and Kupang to verify
reports of intimidation against the refugees.
"It's true there has been intimidation and efforts to prevent
the refugees from returning (to East Timor). However, we must
look at it very carefully, whether there are political motives
behind these actions. East Timorese have strong family ties and
if one family member is a prointegration fighter, he will try to
prevent the rest of the family from returning to East Timor. And
if one decides to stay, the rest of the family will stay. This
is, in my opinion, a social problem, not a political one," said
Syahnakri.
The police have also begun to take tough measures against the
so-called militias, which Syahnakri prefers to call
prointegration fighters.
In Kupang, for example, the police confiscated more than 100
firearms, including homemade guns. They also seized stolen cars,
including 50 cars belonging to the UN Mission in East Timor
(UNAMET), many of which had been repainted, he said.
"Such strict measures will be stepped up in the future and the
Udayana Military Command is ready to assist the police in
performing this task," he said.
The police are indeed shorthanded and the Udayana command has
deployed its troops to help provide security for the refugees.
"There are two companies from the 753rd Infantry Battalion in
Kupang and another company from the same battalion in Atambua to
back up the police," said Syahnakri.
A number of prointegration militias have also announced their
intention to disband.
"The Mahidi group from Ainaro, for example, disbanded two
weeks ago and handed over 87 firearms," he said.
Other groups, including the one led by noted integration
supporter Joao Tavares, will follow suit, said Syahnakri.
Syahnakri is also aware of the psychological problems faced by
the prointegration fighters, who feel they have been betrayed and
abandoned by the Indonesian people, a feeling similar to that
experienced by South Vietnamese and American troops when the U.S.
withdrew from Saigon in 1967.
"I will pay serious attention to psychological aspects when
dealing with them to avoid the problems faced by the veterans of
the Vietnam war. The fact is, they are prointegration fighters
and they have been with us for tens of years," said Syahnakri.
Syahnakri denied charges his job included luring East Timor
back to Indonesia. This issue was raised over the fact that he is
no stranger to East Timor, is fluent in the local language Tetun
and has friends in both the proindependence and prointegration
camps.
"There was no such order. I believe that my appointment was
based on my prior assignments. I served with the Udayana Military
Command from the time I was still a second lieutenant until I
became a major," said Syahnakri, who served four tours in East
Timor under Operation Seroja in 1975, 1981, 1988 and 1993 before
his appointment as Dili commander in September 1994.
He said he was determined to respect the East Timorese's
decision to become independent, despite allegations that the Aug.
30 ballot which led to East Timor's separation from Indonesia was
manipulated.
"Although they are my former enemies, they are now a free
people who are our neighbors. There is no alternative but to
maintain a good relationship with them, and I think it will not
serve them well if they do not maintain good relations with
Indonesia," said Syahnakri, who is well acquainted with
proindependence figures such as Ramos Horta, Leandro Isac and
Taur Matan Ruak.
"In fact, I met Ruak during my last trip to Dili when I was
with Holbrooke. It was a warm meeting, I believe, during which
Ruak extended greetings from Xanana (East Timorese leader Jose
Alexandre Xanana Gusmao), whom I have never met," he said.
Syahnakri also denied charges TNI armed prointegration
fighters with 10,000 M-16s.
"It's true that some of them were armed, but most of their
firearms were from the Portuguese era. When Portugal abandoned
East Timor they left many weapons, which were kept by various
groups. They never reported ownership of those weapons," said
Syahnakri.
Another major task facing Syahnakri is relocating the
headquarters of the Dili-based Wira Dharma Military Command,
which oversaw East Timor under the jurisdiction of the Udayana
command. There has been resistance to plans to relocate the
headquarters to Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara.
"The Army leadership is flexible. Gen. Subagyo has said that
the Army will not impose its will on the people. When the Maumere
people said they did not want us, Pak Bagyo said to consider
Ende. However, when we announced our plan to go to Ende, the
Maumere people said they wanted us there.
"This shows that both the Army and the people need to
understand a few things before we finally arrive at an agreement.
It could be that people are not fully informed about the plan and
who will be stationed there. We, on the other hand, may have
failed to grasp the people's wishes and the reasons behind their
initial rejection of the planned relocation," said Syahnakri.
Maumere is seen as the ideal location for the command because
of its strategic location, which will facilitate easy command and
control of the area through land, air and sea, and its relatively
better facilities.
"But as I have said, we are flexible," Syahnakri said.
He pointed out that economically, Maumere would benefit from
the presence of the headquarters.
"It will be manned by around 160 people who will spend at
least Rp 1 billion a month. As most of the personnel are troops,
they will spend the money buying staple items, and this means
they will boost the income of small-scale traders, he said.
Syahnakri warned, however, that the military should also
consider the cultural aspects of the planned relocation.
"The new headquarters will be manned by the 744th Infantry
Battalion. Although most of its members hail from East Nusa
Tenggara, with only 20 percent of them from East Timor, that does
not mean there will not be problems," he said.
He was referring to concerns raised by critics of the planned
relocation, who fear the presence of the troops will lead to
military repression.
"I have to admit that discipline is a major constraint and it
is my intention to improve the discipline and professionalism of
the Udayana personnel," said Syahnakri.
There are a number of problems which have resulted from a lack
of military discipline and professionalism, not only within the
Udayana command, but also nationwide.
"The main problem is a lack of benefits. If a soldier is
hungry or cannot buy milk for his baby, he will be forced to
commit acts which break military discipline, such as moonlighting
to earn extra money. This is not a criminal act but one of
indiscipline," he said.
Indonesian soldiers are among the poorest paid among the
member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Their wages are lower than the minimum wage of factory workers in
Jakarta, who receive Rp 198,000 (about US$28) a month.
Given this, it is not uncommon for soldiers to moonlight at
the expense of their military professionalism.
"The Udayana command will do everything to try to improve this
situation, although our efforts will be very, very limited. At
least we can try to ensure that they receive their correct pay on
time," said Syahnakri.
Poor human resources is another factor behind the lack of
discipline and professionalism among TNI personnel, he said.
"Most of those who join the military are people who cannot
find other jobs or cannot enter state universities. This can be
seen from the test results in the past few years. Many of them
actually failed the tests, forcing us to lower our standards
because we needed them," he said.
Another reason behind the problems with discipline and
professionalism is that for the past two years, Indonesian
soldiers have been on duty constantly. Ideally, troops are
rotated, he said.
Syahnakri's short stint as military chief in East Timor served
as a very valuable lesson.
"I was able to compare my soldiers with the foreign troops, in
terms of professionalism. I was able to draw a conclusion about
the things that need improvement," he said.
At the time, Syahnakri was also serving as operations
assistant to the chief in charge of the Army's training and
development, helping to implement a three-phase training program
to improve the professionalism of TNI soldiers.
"We started with instructors, and of the 112 who joined the
program only 24 qualified when it ended in September. At present,
we are conducting a similar program for battalion and brigade
commanders. The third phase will be conducted at all military
commands," he said.
"As the new Udayana military chief, I will focus my efforts on
improving the discipline and professionalism of my personnel," he
said, adding that better discipline and professionalism are a
must if TNI hopes to regain the respect and trust of the people.
The writer is a journalist.