TEMPO Magazine, June 04 - 10, 2002
Deserters on the Rampage
HERE is one of the real enemies of peace in Maluku: soldiers who are AWOL from
their own units. The general public knows them as ordinary soldiers, but the TNI
(Indonesian Military) brass prefer to call them deserters: troops, they say, who
commit insubordination and operate beyond the orders of their superiors. Which one
of those contentions is true is not clear yet. The fact is that none of those soldiers
has been arrested yet, let alone interrogated. What's clear is that they make up a
group-with a highly organized working method and, lest one forgets, powerful funds.
They generally use the youth and the unemployed as provocateurs in instigating
conflict.
This is the story of Yunus Tanalepi, a resident of Ambon City, now languishing in a
cell of the Maluku Police Headquarters. Unemployed and 23 years old, he claims to
have been directly recruited last January by Ridwan, Hendrik, and Surtono, whom he
describes as Kopassus (Special Forces) members. Together with 10 other young
men, Yunus was drilled mentally and physically at a location in Ambon.
They were divided into two camps, and trained to provoke different groups to attack
each other. They also had to memorize battle codes. For example, three shots into
the air, coinciding with a bomb explosion, were a signal to start hostilities. Then,
when the battle was becoming intense, there would be four shots in a row, a signal for
the two camps to disappear at once.
The effectiveness of the group was proved in the "war" between two villages on
Saparua Island, Parto and Haria, last April 4. Yunus confessed to TEMPO that at his
group's provocation, the two Christian villages went at each other's throats, killing four
people in the process and seriously injuring dozens of others. The provocateurs' other
feats included the blowing up of Hartono Shop on Jalan Said Perintah, Ambon, in
early April and the triggering of an explosion among public transport vehicles at Air
Salobar, also in Ambon.
Another audacious act was the bombing of an eatery located just 10 meters from the
residence of the Intelligence Assistant to the Pattimura Regional Military Commander.
Seven people were killed and some 15 others seriously wounded.
Yunus confesses he was always ready to receive orders for setting off bombs and
creating provocation as these actions provided him with a satisfactory income. "One
order could yield Rp200,000 plus a bonus," he told TEMPO. The money enabled him
to meet his needs in this endless time of crisis.
Engaging in such "critical work" appears to have an attraction for many youths in
Maluku. Another one is Jefri Wattimena, a second-grade student of a private high
school in Ambon. In early February, Jefri was picked up by someone who claimed to
be a Kopassus secret warfare unit member in Ambon. He was told he would be
interviewed by a foreign journalist about a recent clash in the city and would be paid
Rp100,000.
As it turned out, the "interview" was but a ruse. At the designated place, along with
tens of other youths, the 16-year-old boy was subjected to training in the use of a rifle,
hand grenades and the infiltration of enemy lines. In short he was "rigorously drilled
like a soldier." The training lasted from April 20 to April 23. The pocket money he
received turned out to be more generous than promised: Rp650,000.
What was even more gratifying for Jefri: upon completion of his training he promptly
received his first order: to blow up the cars of Pemmy Sousa and Emang Nikijuluw,
who belong to the Christian supporters of the Malino II Agreement. He was promised a
generous bonus as soon as the cars were destroyed. Jefri confessed to TEMPO that
he rejected the order, because he knew both men well, and even often asked
Nikijuluw for money.
The Kopassus Information Officer, Capt. Farid Makruf, denies the alleged involvement
of any Kopassus members. "None of our men in Maluku bears any of those names,"
he says. "They don't belong to my unit. They may well be deserters who entered
Ambon," Secret Warfare (Sandi Yudha) Commander in Ambon, Maj. Imam Santoso
told TEMPO. Iman admits, though, that a number of soldiers and policemen deserted
their units and caused trouble. Highly skilled and aggressive, "they are very
dangerous."
Former Maluku Police Chief Brig. Gen. Firman Gani, says they are well organized and
dangerous, indeed. He estimates the number of `defiant' ex-soldiers at 25-50. The
army chief of staff, Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, for his part says he has received no
report yet about any army personnel having deserted their units. He admits, though,
that some of his subordinates "have been playing with fire" in Maluku. Endriartono
explained to TEMPO in Ambon last Wednesday that "they have indeed been causing
worry to the people in Ambon and, therefore, must be dealt with."
To deal with them, a large force is necessary. What with the Pattimura Regional
Military Command's official report in mid-2000, that 18 percent of military personnel
and 45 percent of policemen had deserted. That's not to say, though, that all
deserters were involved in conflicts. The then Pattimura Regional Military Commander
Brig. Gen. I Made Yasa estimates that 350 of the 7,000 troops under his command
had deserted in order to help one side or the other in the conflicts.
This may well be the reason that a divisional commander of the Army Strategic
Reserves Command (Kostrad) has been assigned as the new regional military
commander. His experience in commanding a combat division is seen as an essential
asset in reigning in the deserters. Wens Manggut, Fritz Karlely (Ambon)
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