Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia's once all-powerful army made a rare admission on Thursday that it was still struggling to instil ideals of human rights among its quarter of a million men.
But Endriartono Sutarto, the army's chief of staff, asked the public to be patient and insisted the military was still justified in using harsh measures against those who broke the law.
"We know this is our weak spot. The soldier's pocket book now is what can, what must and what can't be done according to human rights," the four-star general told a rare open-door meeting with the media. "Human rights is our current main focus. If we do not take it into account ... public trust will vanish, we will be the stepchild in this country and we will not be able to do our job," Sutarto said.
The army was the main defender of former president Suharto's 32-year autocratic rule but has come in for widespread criticism since he was forced to step down amid mass riots three years ago.
Evidence of army atrocities has grown, ranging from thousands of villagers killed in separatist Aceh province on the western tip of Sumatra to the torture of Jakarta activists.
"We thought what we did was right. Nobody [at that time] told us it wasn't but suddenly it changed ... everything we did turned out to be wrong," Sutarto said.
Harsh measures justified
But the general said the public needed to give the army time to improve its human rights record and warned the military must not have its hands tied when dealing with separatists, such as the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
"When people are killed in an exchange of fire do not just see it as a big sin because groups like GAM use people as their shields. GAM themselves are (civilian) people who are violating the law," he said. "We have told our soldiers that killing is not taboo if it deserves to be done," Sutarto added.
Rebels have been fighting Indonesia's army for a quarter of a century in Aceh, saying Jakarta has long exploited the resource-rich province but given little in return. The clashes have killed some 1,500 people, mostly civilians, this year alone.
Indonesia also faces separatist protests at the other end of the world's most populous Muslim nation in the eastern province of Papua and there have also been reports of military atrocities there, although on a far lesser scale than in Aceh.
The army will again come under the spotlight early next year when a special human rights court is expected to start trying suspects, including several army officers, accused of past abuses including the bloodshed surrounding East Timor's vote for independence in 1999.
Pro-Jakarta militias, supported by elements in the Indonesian army, went on an orgy of violence and the United Nations estimates more than 1,000 East Timorese were killed after the tiny territory voted to throw off 23 years of often brutal Indonesian rule.