Wiranto Set up Militias, says ex-aide
Marianne Kearney in Jakarta
23jun04

A FORMER aide has accused Indonesian presidential hopeful General Wiranto of setting up a militia group in Jakarta in 1988.

This was before the former armed forces chief backed the establishment of the notorious militias which rampaged through East Timor in 1999, says Major-General Kivlan Zen, former chief of staff of the Special Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad).

Maj-Gen Kivlan says he was told to set up the Jakarta force using thugs from all over Indonesia.

This force was used to counter students and democracy activists who were calling for the dissolution of parliament's upper house (MPR) and the establishment of an interim government after the overthrow of the Suharto
dictatorship in May 1998.

"He ordered me to collect people from mass organisations. I collect around 30,000 people from Jakarta, Banten, Lampung to protect and secure against the anti-MPR session," Maj-Gen Kivlan said.

Armed with bamboo sticks and trained by the Jakarta military garrison or Kodam Jaya, the militia known as Pam Swarkasa, fought against student protesters around the parliament and central Jakarta in November 1998.

Emerging a fortnight before the first round of presidential elections, the allegations are damning for General Wiranto, who has claimed he was a strong supporter of reformasi - the movement which ushered in Indonesia's
democracy.

He claims that while he could have crushed the young reform movement, by turning the guns on students in May 1998, he refused to, defying orders from then president Suharto.

But the formation of this militia also contributed to the rise of vigilante groups in Jakarta.

The most violent, the Muslim Defenders Front, became stand-over men for the security forces, forcing bars and brothels to pay their dues, under the guise of launching raids on un-Islamic entertainment places.

Maj-Gen Kivlan's claims have been given widespread coverage since the release last Thursday of his book, Conflict and Integration of the Indonesian Army, which describes several conflicts within the military over
the past decade. His story also damages General Wiranto's credibility as a potential president who would crack down on corruption.

He accuses the former military strongman of embezzling 9.6 billion rupiah ($1.6 million) stolen from the State Logistics Agency, which General Wiranto told the courts in a separate corruption trial was used to fund
militia groups in East Timor.

Then-president B.J. Habibie is quoted by Maj-Gen Kivlan as saying in November 1998 that the funds were supposed to fund the Jakarta militia.The former Kostrad chief of staff says General Wiranto never paid for the
establishment of the Jakarta militia and he had to use 5.7 billion rupiah of his own money and raise another 1.3 billion rupiah from businessmen. He also says that when General Wiranto heard that the book would be published
he sent an aide offering to pay the 5.7 billion rupiah.

Maj-Gen Kivlan also says he was offered the British ambassadorship in a future Wiranto regime if he would wait two weeks for the money to be repaid.

Queensland Newspapers