Paras Indonesia, January, 17 2006 @ 04:45 pm
One More Step To Martial Law
By: Lian Gogali
"How are they going to catch the perpetrators if the government sent in the henchmen
themselves?" asked a number of residents in the two most dangerous towns in
Indonesia at the moment, Palu and Poso. But the government insisted on sending in
TNI troops and even formed the Poso Security Task Force, followed by a Security
Operation Command (KOOPSKAM). Also on hand was the 88th Detachment that
handled the second Bali bombings. The arrival of these elite military commands
however was no reaction to the latest bombing. It was actually part of the
implementation of the Presidential Decree No. 14/2005 on the comprehensive
measures for Poso which was issued earlier on October 12, 2005. But could they
bring order to Central Sulawesi? Or would they make matters worse?
Like a bad recording, Central Sulawesi police repeatedly announce that those
responsible for terrorising people in Poso and Palu are part of an organized group.
They are not from the Christian side, nor Muslim. So who are they? To make things
worse, on January 9 this year, the deployed soldiers, instead of securing the area,
clashed with police officers. They cited personal sentiments among the armed
personnel. Or could this be just a training for the Central Sulawesi people that they
now share their homes with armed forces with various political and economic
interests?
For the many peace workers in Poso in Palu, the presence of KOOPSKAM is more
like a preconditioning before the government changed the civil emergency status into
martial law in particularly Poso. In other words, it is remilitarization. Furthermore, the
operation command also makes way to the possibility to establish a regional military
command or KODAM in Palu, instead of the initially planned city of Manado. The
concern is based on the degrading state of security in Poso and Palu, therefore
legitimizing the flow in of troops. But again, people in this area continue to question
the effectiveness of these troops. On January 10, five government offices were burnt to
the ground just 50 meters from the District Military Command 1307 in Poso. Proximity
to these command posts seems to have no effect on the security. In fact, military
posts have boomed for the past years in Poso. Most of them are also in close
distance to one another.
Strangely enough, the presence of troops was also followed by the rising number of
sniper attacks, unsolved murders and bomb explosions. Residents continue to live in
fear while the refugees continue to struggle. But it seems, there are groups of people
benefiting from this. People with money - the investors. That is the main reason why
the troops are deployed to Central Sulawesi. They are there to protect natural
resource exploration and keeping local resistance to a minimum, while blaming third
unknown party as terrorizes of peace in Poso and the surroundings. It is a myth that
conflict zones will drive away businesses. Poso Regent Piet Ingkriwang promised his
people that when investors come they would be "swimming in a sea of money". But a
Poso resident responded, "What's the use of all that money if bullets are flying from
all over?"
Copyright (c) 2005 - PT Laksamana Global International. All rights reserved
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