James Balowski, Jakarta
The US has given its clearest signal yet that it may consider lifting a 23-year-old arms embargo imposed on the Indonesian armed forces (TNI). A partial lifting of the embargo came soon after the tsunami hit Aceh on December 26, when the US offered spare parts for US-made Hercules C-130 transport planes.
Human rights organisations say this is the thin end of the wedge and if anything, the TNI's handling of the relief operations shows that it remains the corrupt and abusive institution it has always been.
Following a meeting in Jakarta with US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz on January 16, Indonesia's defence minister, Juwono Sudarsono, called for restrictions to be eased. Sudarsono said he wants to convince Congress that the TNI is trying to reform.
Wolfowitz responded by saying he was impressed by recent reforms. Separately, Wolfowitz said cutting contacts with the TNI "only makes the problems much worse" and improved military ties would "make it possible to respond much more quickly and effectively in a crisis like this one".
Human rights groups refute the claim and say C-130s, OV-10 Broncos, F-16 fighters and other US equipment are being used for military operations in Aceh. The military freely admits it has not suspended operations against the armed separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) despite repeated ceasefire offers from the group.
The US also says Indonesia is lying and it has been allowed to buy the spare parts under US law since 2002. "We told the Indonesians we would sell them these parts four years ago, but they chose to buy them elsewhere", Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy was quoted as saying to Associated Press on January 14. "Yet they have continued to falsely blame our law for denying them this equipment. It is a myth, used to push for a relaxation of our human rights conditions, so they can use these aircraft for combat purposes", he said. "...the Indonesian military remains a corrupt, abusive institution in need of reform".
In a press release issue by the East Timor Action Network on January 13, ETAN said: "The TNI wants to use assistance for political ends and should not be allowed to distribute aid. The people of Aceh fear the soldiers, and entrenched TNI corruption will siphon off much needed assistance."
Commenting on the C-130 spare parts, ETAN said "If [US] Secretary [of State Collin] Powell believes that Indonesia will heed his mild request 'not [to] use them in a way not intended, he has already forgotten the horrid history of TNI's use of US weapons in East Timor and elsewhere".
Reports are also emerging that the TNI is hoarding supplies and selling them to hungry and desperate victims. In an interview with Radio Australia on January 10, Nurdin Abdul Rahman, a liaison officer for the Australian Acehnese community, said soldiers were selling instant noodles that should be distributed free.
Rahman also said the TNI has banned people from going to vegetable gardens in the hinterland to gather food where many GAM rebels are based. "People are desperately in need of food but the Indonesian military have the nerve to prevent or ban people to go to their farm for food — this is so inhumane. They say they want to keep people from contact with guerrillas".
In the same interview, Deakin University lecturer Damien Kingsbury said he had heard similar stories. "I've heard a number of stories about the TNI stockpiling food and distributing it selectively and indeed selling it to refugees. ... I've had it confirmed from a number of sources".
In an interview with the US radio-based Democracy Now! on January 14, renowned journalist and activist Allan Nairn painted an even more sinister picture. Nairn explained how the TNI is getting directly involved in aid distribution.
"I just spoke to an Acehnese activist just returned from West Aceh, who said that aid supplies are being taken directly to the Kopassus [elite special forces] and SGI [military intelligence] barracks. These barracks are torture centers where Acehnese are routinely brought in and worked-over for interrogation.
"And now these supplies are being piled up there and either resold by the Kopassus and SGI intelligence people or, as the person that I spoke to put it, used as a political instrument in the villages. They go out to the villages and first demand that villagers present their special ID card issued by the police, given only to people who are certified as not being opponents of the army, and they demand they swear allegiance to the state of Indonesia and collaborate with the army ... the government is actually blocking the bank accounts of some of the grassroots groups trying to prevent them from receiving donations from overseas."
Human Rights Watch is calling for the military to be stripped of its role in distributing relief supplies. It said that aid agencies had been pressured, and occasionally forced, to turn over aid to the military for delivery. In an open letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on January 8 the group said "They should be allowed to deliver aid directly to populations in need, without military escort or presence, except where their physical security necessitates a military presence".
The military is even disrupting aid collections in Jakarta. Jakarta's poor have been donating anything they can spare, money, clothing, food, at hundreds of voluntarily staffed poskos (aid collection posts) hastily setup throughout the city. Yet when I visited a SEGERA (Solidarity Movement with the People of Aceh) posko on December 30 — already stacked to the ceiling with donations ready to be sent to Aceh — I was told that they had been ordered to close because their posko was "illegal".
Worse may be yet to come. SEGERA activists report that their posko in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh is already under surveillance by Indonesian intelligence and may have to close for security reasons. On January 20 SEGERA reported by SMS that Iyan, a volunteer with Indosiar from the Indonesian Student League for Democracy (LMND), was attacked and badly beaten by Kopassus soldiers.
From Green Left Weekly, January 26, 2005.
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