Indonesia: April 16, 2002

Archives

Three men described as "rogue army officers." have been arrested for the murder of Papuan separatist leader last November. In Aceh, rebel violence left two soldiers and three rebels dead. Although the government has been cracking down on illegal army operations (especially those that involve intimidating civilians with murder and violence), there are still a lot of officers who believe, and practice, an "ends justify the means" approach to civil unrest.  Thus a lot of civilians are killed by troops in separatist areas like Aceh and Papua. When the army reports "rebels killed," the dead are often just civilians the troops thought (often on very flimsy evidence) were rebels. These attitudes among the troops have long existed in the region, and the training provided by the United States involved a lot of instruction demonstrating why the traditional ways of treating civilians is counterproductive, and showing more humane and effective methods. Ironically, the US instructors were blamed for the Indonesian troop's bad habits (based on no evidence other than a desire to criticize American military assistance.) US military assistance is about to resume, after a long hiatus because of the political unrest in Indonesia. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close