TNI nothing more than mercenaries: Analysts

TNI nothing more than mercenaries: Analysts

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Military (TNI) must stop collecting protection
money from firms operating in the country as the largess would
confirm the impression that TNI personnel were mercenaries who
only sold their services to the highest bidder, analysts say.

Former defense minister Juwono Sudarsono and former Navy
intelligence officer Djuanda said on Sunday that TNI should not
have funding sources other than the state, and that collecting
payments from other sources would erode their loyalty to the
state.

"The state should be the only source of funding for the TNI,"
Juwono told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Djuanda said that by demanding protection, a perception had
been created that the TNI was just a group of mercenaries.

"Continuing the habit of collecting fees from other sources
has turned the TNI into nothing more than mercenaries and will
create a loyalty crisis," Djuanda was quoted by Antara as saying
on Sunday.

Yuwono and Djuanda were commenting on news reports that gold
and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia was paying tens
of billions of rupiah to TNI personnel guarding the company's
operations in Papua province.

Both TNI commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and PT Freeport
Indonesia have confirmed the reports.

In 2002 alone, the company provided US$5.6 million for the TNI
there, up from US$4.7million 2001.

Collecting protection fees from both state-owned and private
firms is commonplace in Indonesia, where security personnel, both
TNI and police are paid poorly, but given a free hand to "make"
extra money.

Companies paying the fees are not limited to big firms like
Freeport but also small firms or side-walk stalls who are
required to pay protection money to either the TNI or the police.

Juwono said TNI personnel have been conducting the practices
since the late 1970s, when the state budget was reduced for the
TNI and the commanders in field were provided with a kind of
"discretion" to acquire extra money.

"When I was minister of defense, an executive from ExxonMobil,
Ron Wilson, admitted that the company provided support funding
for security to TNI via state-owned oil and gas company
Pertamina," Juwono disclosed.

He said the money was not delivered directly because the U.S.
government banned the distribution of funds for the military or
government officials for any reason.

"Usually, Pertamina plays the role as the funding channel from
these mining companies for the country's security officers,"
Juwono remarked.

However, he refused to link such payoffs with a string of
violence taking place around Freeport, which many suspect could
be related to a desire for an increase in fees.

The murder of separatist leader Theys Hiyo Eluay in 2001, and
the ambush killing of two American teachers and an Indonesian
employed by Freeport on a road to the mine last year were two
major cases which concerned the company.

Seven soldiers from the Army's special forces, Kopassus, are
on trial for the Theys murder, while the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) is still conducting an investigation into the
ambush.

"The province is already a strife-torn area," Juwono remarked.

Djuanda emphasized that such payments could make soldiers
loyal to whomever could pay them the most.

The former military advisor for former president Abdurrahman
Wahid said that safety of the country was the main obligation of
the TNI and the government had specifically assigned them to
protect energy sites from any security threats.

In the two war-torn provinces of Papua and Aceh, where several
giant natural resource sites are located, there is an extremely
heavy presence of military and police personnel.