The killings must end

The killings must end

Perhaps our security authorities are well advised to carefully
heed the call made recently by the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) central
board. The board's secretary-general, Achmad Bagja, reminded the
authorities that the NU board is willing, for the present, to
allow them time to restore peace and security (in East Java and
other areas where mostly NU supporters have been killed by
unidentified individuals). This tolerance, he said, would run out
by the end of November at the latest. "Unless the security
authorities can end the problem soon, the people, and NU members
in particular, will settle the situation in their own manner," he
warned.

We hope this reference to settling the case in the people's
own manner does not mean abandoning the codes of the law. After
all, as Achmad Bagja also said, NU is hoping that the legal
process (of settling the affair) can be completed quickly.
Nevertheless, it should be realized -- and anticipated -- that
the people's way of settling affairs could overstep the
boundaries of correctness as defined by the law.

Even the village vigilantes -- which were formed at the
government's advice -- can overstep their lawful authority
because of the pressures of the situation. In some instances,
people have taken the law into their own hands and acted with
excessive force against those who were suspected of being the
killers. Once again, therefore, the authorities must lay open the
situation promptly in order that the people do not take the law
into their own hands. This is also important to bolster the
credibility of the security apparatus.

This era of reform, it has often been said, is an era of the
supremacy of the law. The law must be upheld in order to defend
the human dignity of our people and protect their basic rights,
including the right to live. For this reason, the unnatural death
of every person -- particularly if it is the result of any
inhumane act of violence -- deserves to be thoroughly
investigated.

We would like to remind everyone, as Foreign Minister Ali
Alatas has told us, that the international community is carefully
watching what is going on in Banyuwangi. Imagine the damage that
our good image would suffer in the world if we cannot resolve
this problem satisfactorily.

-- Suara Karya, Jakarta