Theo Kelen, Jayapura – There are fears that the involvement of the TNI (Indonesian Military) in food security programs in the Land of Papua will increase the risk of violence against civilians and human rights violations.
This was conveyed by Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) Deputy Director Ardi Manto Adiputra in response to the inauguration of five vulnerable area support infantry battalions tasked with supporting food security programs in the Land of Papua.
"The involvement of the TNI in managing matters of food security is clearly not appropriate. (The involvement of the TNI) will only give birth to problems such as violence and human rights violations", Adiputra told Jubi on Wednesday October 9.
On October 2, TNI Commander General Agus Subiyanto inaugurated five special infantry battalions to support the government's food security program in Papua. The five battalions will cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture and local communities to plant the basic food commodities, one of which is rice.
"The impact could be very serious, namely an escalation in violence against civilians. (Because) residents will face the muzzles of the military's guns purchased from tax money they pay themselves", he said.
Adiputra said the formation of five new battalions in Papua with the aim of supporting food security clearly deviates from the TNI's goal of defence. Projecting the TNI for purposes other than matters of defence will have an impact on the weakening the TNI's professionalism.
"On the other hand, this will also increasingly show the inability of related institutions, in this case the Ministry of Agriculture, in carrying out its duties of managing the problem of national food security", he said.
Adiputra said that the TNI should not be involved in various types of business activities as regulated under Article 39 of Law Number 34/2004 on the TNI and that the involvement of the TNI in business affairs would clearly weaken the professionalism of the TNI itself.
More than that, according to Adiputra the involvement of the TNI in state business projects will clearly create an unfair business climate and will certainly damage the business climate in Indonesia which will have an impact on the national economy.
"The state must guarantee that the business climate in Indonesia is fair, not with weapons. In other words, (the government) should not involve the TNI or the military", he said.
Adiputra said that the TNI commander must re-evaluate the formation of infantry battalions that are not in line with the main tasks of the TNI, namely for matters of defence. If the formation of these five infantry battalions is still pushed through, then the goal must be to fully support national defence, not for other purposes.
"The people in Papua must be free from the shadow of state apparatus violence, especially the threat of violence due to conflicts over this food security PSN [National Strategic Project]", he said.
Democratic Alliance for Papua (ALDP) justice division head Latifah Alhamid said that military involvement in the civilian domain cannot be not be done automatically without a legal basis. Alhamid said the legal basis was important in order to be able to explain how urgent the situation is such that the military needs to be mobilised, including the basis for determining a certain region as a vulnerable area.
"The presence of more battalions correlates with an increase in the number of troops. For the benefit of what is referred to as food security, this is actually a civilian-owned space which will actually be filled by military troops", Alhamid told Jubi on Wednesday.
Alhamid said that so far, the urgency for the military to be involvement in food security programs cannot be seen because some of the projects had not been accompanied by study documents that can be accessed by the public. Alhamid said that measures related to threats against the implementation of these projects, which are used as a reason for the military's involvement, cannot be rationalised.
"The situation observed at the project site (food security projects such as the PSN in Merauke) was that they are relatively safe for civilians to carry out activities", he said.
Alhamid said that there are concerns that the addition of troops will in fact trigger a new approach towards local residents and it is feared that it will tend to be repressive in character or will close space for civil society. Moreover, right from the start, projects like the PSN in Merauke began without any meaningful participation by local communities.
"Actions rejecting [the projects] continue to be voiced, and there are concerns that it will be susceptible to violence if what civil society is confronted by is troops whose working mechanism tends to be close to violence. It is feared that human rights violations will occur in layers, where people not only lose their land, but also other rights", he said.
Alhamid said the government should withdraw non-organic troops from the land of Papua. The government should also impose a moratorium on permits and evaluate permits that have been issued in the land of Papua, especially the planned activities that have been rejected by communities.
"What must be done is to open discussions, dialogue with the community owners of communal land rights. Also consolidation among civil society itself", he said.
Merauke Archdiocese Peace and Justice Secretariat member Father Pius Cornelis Manu said that a number of TNI soldiers are already guarding PSN rice fields in the Wogekel and Wanam villages in Ilwayab district, Merauke regency. Manu said the presence of TNI soldiers was in conjunction with excavators sent by the Jhonlin business group to work on a million hectares of rice fields.
"Ships (with an excavator) have begun to arrive. They [the soldiers] are also there", Manu told Jubi by telephone on Tuesday October 8.
Manu said the military's presence the rice fields PSN has made residents feel uncomfortable and frightened. According to Manu, residents who protested against the project allegedly suffered intimidation by the military.
"What was the military brought in for? What have they got to do with us? Those who come from outside, they don't know the concept of customary land. People want to protest about it, they want to question, [but] they don't have any power", he said.
- Papuan students in Jayapura protest massive sugar cane project in Merauke. Jubi Papua – October 7, 2024
- New TNI battalions in Papua will create more conflicts, rights abuses: Observer. Tempo – October 3, 2024
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Pelibatan TNI Dalam PSN Ketahanan Pangan Menambah Risiko Kekerasan Terhadap Warga".]
