---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- SUPANGKAT'S COLUMN: COULD THERE BE IMPUNITY FOR INDONESIAN MILITARY? Indonesian military has been committing attrocities against Indonesian people with impunity. They are the Law, they are above the Law, simply because our legal system is still under the Dutch colonial system of pre-Magna Carta 1512. We are going to have a new regime in a couple of months. It is most likely that the PDI-Megawati would lead the new government. She has been criticized as not too eager to go for reformation and is too inclined to use the old military muscles apparently to balance the present military junta so to speak. The fact remains that whoever comes to power, whether it be PDI coalition or any other coalition, it won't be able to push back the military to the barrack because of the Dwifungsi ABRI (the bifunction of the Armed Forces) is not merely a doctrine but a living fact as long as the l945 Constitution is in place. The new regime won't be able to surrender its military officers to the International Tribune a la Bosnia, Rwanda or Kosovo. If they do, the military will flex its muscle militarily and politically as well since they have 38 unelected Represent- atives in the new Parliament and MPR. Perhaps there could be another way out which is compromising the decision of the International Tribune. This is a way of life in Indonesia, but the Tribune won't accept it. The new Indonesia regime will be pressured again and again, meanwhile our reputation as a "pariah nation" a la Serbia and Rwanda is going from bad to worse, and so is the economy which is already a mission impossible to overcome where almost 100 million people are suffering from diseases, sick- ness, illnesses caused by malnutrition and hunger, aboput 10 million suffering from permanent damage from hunger: the oedema! We spent billions and billions of US$ for building a better image in foreign policy in general and in East Timor in particular, for nothing. We should not spend too much anymore for foreign policy because it is a big fiasco anyway, why should we pay the salary of one single UN Ambas- sador US$15.000.- (clean take home pay) a month while our people are starv- ving and dying. It is a total waste! Where is the conscience in foreign policy? We are a nation condemned by the international community as a pariah nation, and we are starving and killing our own people knowingly and deliberately. Poor Indonesians! Somebody have mercy on them! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 24 Sep 1999 jam 21:52:31 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
