DATE=7/11/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA / SECURITY WORRIES - L ONLY
NUMBER=2-264289
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Indonesia's defense minister has painted a
bleak picture of the country's security situation,
citing a lack of funds and personnel. As Patricia
Nunan reports from Jakarta, the defense minister says
security forces may need 15 to 20 years before they
can provide Indonesia with adequate protection in the
face of recent violence in some Indonesian provinces.
TEXT: Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono
says Indonesia's security forces are -- as he put it -
- "under-equipped, under-manned, under-paid and
under-loved."
Mr. Sudarsono says it will take up to 20 years to
build a police force, which could protect local
communities from crime and social unrest. He says
currently there is one police officer for every 36-
hundred people in Indonesia, which has a population of
210 million.
Mr. Sudarsono says it will not be until the ratio is
one officer to every 400 people that the force will be
strong enough to function properly.
Indonesia's police force was separated from the
military last year, as part of reforms aimed at
stemming human rights abuses by security forces. Mr.
Sudarsono says that the Indonesian military is the
only force now that can keep the nation together.
But he acknowledged the military still needs to reform
itself in order to become more professional. The
Armed Forces have been accused of a series of human
rights violations across the country -- including in
the northern province of Aceh, where at least two-
thousand people are alleged to have died or to have
simply disappeared at the hands of Indonesian troops.
Several top Armed Forces officials are also under
investigation for their part in the destruction of
East Timor last September, in which hundreds of people
were killed.
Last month, the Armed Forces rotated roughly 12
hundred out of Maluku province, because they said some
had begun to participate in clashes between Muslims
and Christians there.
/// OPT /// The wave of violence has claimed more than
170 lives in recent weeks -- and has prompted
criticism that the military is incapable of stopping
the killing. /// END OPT ///
Since the fall of the authoritarian President Suharto
in May 1998, analysts have warned that Indonesia could
disintegrate if ethnic unrest, social unrest and rebel
separatist movements were allowed to get out of hand.
At the same time, there has been a massive push to
reform the armed forces after years of operating with
near impunity under President Suharto. (signed)
NEB/HK/PN/JO
11-Jul-2000 06:44 AM EDT (11-Jul-2000 1044 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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