Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – It is not necessary for the Indonesian Military (TNI) to deploy civilian defense groups to handle internal conflicts in the country such as the 1999 violence in Timor Leste, a military analyst said Friday.
A civilian defense group, or Wanra (Perlawanan rakyat, people's resistance), should take part in a conflict to help the TNI only if the country faces an outside threat, said Kusnanto Anggoro from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"As the main element in the country's defense system, the TNI should always be in the frontline, especially in handling communal conflict," Kusnanto told The Jakarta Post.
"A Wanra group consists of civilians trained by the TNI (and) only acts as a supporting element in the system to help the military in inter-state conflicts."
"If the TNI deploys the group to take part in a conflict between local communities, like in East Timor, it means that the military is playing one off against the other."
The 1999 violence occurred after the secession of East Timor from Indonesia and implicated groups of pro-integration civilians, who were said to have been trained and armed by the TNI.
Following the widespread chaos, martial law was declared in the former Indonesian province.
East Timor's then martial law commander Lt. Gen. (ret) Kiki Syahnakri, who testified at the public hearing of the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship, said that the trained and armed civilian groups were Wanra, which was legally justified in the country's defense system.
"Even though the act of deploying Wanra is legally justified, it is not a good military principle. The TNI should play their role first in handling the conflict before asking for help from the Wanra," Kusnanto said. The 1945 Constitution and the 1988 Defense Law stipulate that civilians have the right and obligation to defend the state by joining basic military training.
Kusnanto said that the defense law should have clearly stipulated the role and mechanism of Wanra and that they should not be deployed in an internal conflict.
Yusron Ihza Mahendra, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives' Commission I overseeing defense affairs, however, said that the TNI could use Wanra to help them handle any conflict, including those which were internal.
"It is allowed for the military to use Wanra groups under any military threat as long as they did not commit any defiance when they were on duty," Yusron told the Post.
Meanwhile, Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edi Butar Butar said that the current defense law did not recognize the terms Wanra and Sishankamrata (sistem pertahanan rakyat semesta, people's defense and security system).
"The 2002 Defense Law only recognizes the TNI as the defense system's main component, which is backed by supporting and reserve components. Civilian defense groups belong to the reserve component," Edi said.
Edi said that the survival of civilian groups, which are established in regions, was now the responsibility of the provincial administrations, and that the TNI was only responsible for the groups' military training.