Jonathan Thatcher, Jakarta – The Indonesian military's promise of a huge vigilante force to protect people from mounting crime and violence has only managed to add to fears that the country is an ever more dangerous place to live, analysts said on Monday.

At the weekend, armed forces commander General Wiranto said plans were in hand to recruit and train an initial force of 40,000 civilians, armed with sticks and shields, to help enforce law and order in troubled areas of the country.

"It's unbelievable ... if they are going to be used to maintain security during the elections (in June), I'm afraid there will be clashes," leading human rights lawyer Frans Winarta said. He saw the move as a sign of the weakness of the military leadership, who are unable to deal with a growing sense of anarchy in Indonesia as it struggles with its worst political and economic crisis in three decades.

Millions of Indonesians have lost their jobs, even more have slumped below the poverty line and growing numbers of youths and children are failing to turn up to school.

Riots and protests are commonplace around the archipelago and in Jakarta crime rates have soared as a result of the economic depression and the political vacuum left by the downfall of former President Suharto in May after 32 years of autocratic rule.

Many predict the violence will spiral ahead of June's general elections when scores of parties are expected to compete for votes from the world's fourth largest electorate.

"This is a very risky move," warned one senior Western diplomat who, like many others, worried that the civilian guards would turn into a horde of dangerous but government-sanctioned thugs.

The military's last attempt to use civilians fell foul in November when they ended up attacking passersby and demanding money instead of protecting, as they were paid to, a special session of the country's top legislative body.

The government itself sounded uncomfortable with the idea, urging the plan be postponed. "It is closely related to basic individual rights and duties. Therefore the ... plan to recruit them in January, 1999, should be postponed until there is a proper regulation," Justice Minister Muladi said.

Hendardi, head of Indonesia's Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, said the proposal showed the military misunderstood the issues. "More people protesting and the rise in crime are not the cause but the result of the authoritarian and corrupt old regime [of Suharto] ... which President [B.J.] Habibie is trying to maintain," he said.

In an editorial, the English language daily the Jakarta Post saw little comfort in the military's promise to train the civilians, given that elements of the armed forces themselves had been guilty of atrocities but had gone unpunished.

"What guarantee do we have that a civilian militia will not be allowed to wreak havoc with impunity?" asked the Post. "The time when amateurs are needed to help the armed forces uphold security in our nation has not yet come. Not now of all times."