ASSOCIATED PRESS, Wednesday June 19, 2002 4:57 AM ET
Indonesia's military chief concedes deserters fought in Maluku
conflict
By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesia's new military chief acknowledged on Wednesday
that army deserters were responsible for some of the bloodshed in the religious
conflict in Maluku province, but said he understood why they did it.
"The deserter is probably not able to control his emotions or his anger," Gen.
Endriartono Sutarto told reporters. "Don't forget that soldiers are human beings with
feelings and emotions."
At least 6,000 people — mostly Christian civilians — have died in the war between
Christians and Muslims in the Maluku archipelago, 2,400 kilometers (1,600 miles)
east of Jakarta.
Generals loyal to former dictator Suharto — who was ousted by pro-democracy forces
in 1998 — were accused of stoking the conflict that first erupted in 1999.
Government leaders said the aim was to destabilize the reformist regimes of Suharto's
immediate successor, President B.J. Habibie and Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia's
first freely elected head of state in four decades.
During the bloodshed, Indonesian troops were reported to have assisted a radical
Muslim militia, known as Laskar Jihad, in attacks and massacres in Christian
villages. Soldiers and armored cars were filmed attacking a Christian neighborhood in
the Maluku capital of Ambon.
The conflict abated last year when President Megawati Sukarnoputri replaced Wahid,
and a cease-fire was signed in February.
Sutarto, who officially became military chief on Tuesday, played a key role in ensuring
the army's backing for Megawati during Wahid's impeachment.
At his first news conference, the former commander of Suharto's presidential guard
regiment, denied that the military "as an institution" had taken sides in the Maluku
conflict.
"I don't deny there are individual soldiers who have deserted," he said. "They are
probably people from Ambon whose families are victims."
Sutarto reiterated the government's position, saying he would support a resumption of
military ties with the United States on condition that no strings were attached.
Washington cut all military ties with Jakarta in 1999 after the Indonesian army killed
hundreds of civilians in East Timor and destroyed much of the half-island territory after
its people voted for independence in a U.N. referendum.
But top officials of the Bush administration, including Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz — a former ambassador to Indonesia during Suharto's regime — have
pressed for a resumption of ties to back Indonesian military efforts in the international
war against terrorism.
Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
