The Jakarta Post, January 16, 2006
C. Sulawesi unrest hard to handle
The government has decided to establish the security operation command
(koopskam) to resolve the terror attacks and violent acts in the Central Sulawesi
towns of Palu and Poso. One main task of the command is to integrate the services
of the police, the military and the intelligence officers. Chairman of the
counterterrorism coordinating desk at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for
Political, Legal and Security Affairs Ansjaad Mbai talked about the circumstances
surrounding the decision with The Jakarta Post's Tiarma Siboro and Duncan Wilson.
Question: Do you believe the establishment of the security operation command in
Central Sulawesi will be able to answer legal and security problems in the troubled
area?
Answer: We are facing a problem with law enforcement. People do not assist in and
participate in upholding the law, because they have been living in an atmosphere of
terrorism. After some members of the community gave information to the police about
certain issues, a number of them were discovered dead. Another case has also
shown that the attackers could even shoot dead a prosecutor, who, at the time, was
examining the terror case.
Does the establishment of this command suggest a lack of coordination be! tween the
services?
One thing was clear as we (the government) formulated that policy: that there is an
urgent need to take an immediate decision to deal with the violence in that area. The
government feels that a task force should be established. We need a powerful task
force to deal with all kinds of operations there, from the security recovery operation to
law enforcement moves. Now there is a policy from the government that terror cases
will be handled in Jakarta. Hopefully this will be effective.
You said some of the people living in the areas were reluctant to cooperate or engage
with the police. Is there also a problem with friction among the police there?
It is very complicated. This is a conflict that has been ongoing for such a long time
and has claimed many victims among the population, including family members of the
police and the soldiers. So it's very easy for the police or the soldiers, wi! thout
consciously realizing it, to become involved in the conflict. It is human for people who
have lost family members to be influenced and they can no longer be objective in
dealing with this problem. And they can then become involved in the spiral of violence.
That is why rotation has been advocated by a number of politicians as well as
observers.
We also often hear that the police and military forces should be withdrawn from Poso;
similar to the condition in Aceh after the signing of a peace deal in Aceh which
involved the AMM (Aceh Monitoring Mission). But still, that is not an easy thing to do,
as they could be influenced by family movements, or other issues such as the
religious ties that triggered the conflict.
You mentioned that personnel working in the area could sometimes lose detachment.
Do you think that conflict resolution necessarily involves institutions being relocated to
or coordinated from Jakarta?
That is what the government will be moving toward. The situation of conflict in Poso is
not conducive to law enforcement and justice. The implementation of this plan will
depend on the success of the investigation taking place there (into the New Year's
Eve bombing). As the country's legal enforcers tried to deal with rampant violence in
Ambon, there was an idea to set up a so-called court room aboard a ship in a bid to
avoid possible provocations as the trial was going on. The idea has never been
materialized, indeed, but it has described how sensitive the issues have been.
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