TNI to embark on hearts, minds mission

TNI to embark on hearts, minds mission

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Claiming that security threats will remain high in 2005, the
Indonesian Military (TNI) is planning to send personnel to
conflict-prone areas to engage in what it calls a "non-physical
civic missions" (hearts and minds missions).

TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said here on Thursday that
officers would brief people in conflict-torn areas about, among
other things, national unity, nationalism and defense concepts.

"Through the program we expect that people living in conflict-
prone areas will come to understand the meaning of brotherhood.
Besides that, we want to prevent people from engaging in various
kinds of agitation that will only lead to physical conflict,"
Endriartono said on Thursday.

During former president Soeharto's regime, TNI often sent
troops on civic missions focusing on building bridges and opening
up new roads in the countryside. The practice, however, was
halted following strong public demand for the military to return
to their barracks.

Endriartono hinted on Thursday that the civic missions would
be revived and would be held simultaneously with the "hearts and
minds" missions.

He did not reveal the areas where TNI would deploy its troops,
but Maluku, North Maluku and Central Sulawesi have been plagued
by prolonged ethnic and religious conflicts.

The four-star Army general said he expected the Ministry of
Defense to allocate some funds for the project and that "local
administrations are also obliged to cover budgets for civil
missions."

Endriartono was referring to the military law which allows the
military to embark on both military operations and on missions
"other than war".

The concept of "non-physical civic mission" has yet to be made
clear, but a military officer told The Jakarta Post on Thursday
that the TNI would make their missions effective by giving
briefings to villagers at local mosques or holding gatherings at
village heads' offices.

Citing TNI's socio-political function -- widely referred to as
dwifungsi, or "dual function" -- the TNI has maintained its
presence in society, with the military becoming deeply involved
in people's everyday lives, including the way that people perform
their religious duties and the way they raise their families.

In the 1980s, TNI was actively involved in the government's
campaign for family planning. At that time, troops were deployed
to certain remote areas to brief people about the use of
contraceptives.

Following the downfall of the dictator Soeharto in 1998, the
public at large demanded that TNI return to its barracks.

A series of bloody conflicts across the country, however, has
forced TNI to stay put in may areas in order to take actions
aimed at "restoring the security situation."

Critics have often said, however, that the presence of TNI
personnel in conflict-prone territories only worsened the
conflicts, making efforts to stop them futile.

An assessment of TNI's territorial function has come from
Indonesian human rights monitor, Imparsial, saying that the
territorial concept has lost its legitimacy following the end of
independence war of the 1940s that adopted guerrilla war
strategies.

"Even in the troubled province of Aceh, where the secessionist
movement uses guerrilla warfare strategies, the TNI's territorial
concept has no basis -- and in fact has failed -- with soldiers'
behavior causing hatred to actually increase among the Acehnese,"
said an Acehnese sociologist -- who is also Imparsial's program
director -- Otto Syamsuddin Ishak on Thursday.