Letter: We must protect our soldiers

Thu, 03/27/2008 12:07 PM  |  Reader's Forum

I fully agree with the recommendation made by Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono that former members of the military should ignore any summons from the National Commission on Human Rights.

Merely telling them to ignore such summonses, however, is not enough. The government, especially the military commander, must defend soldiers' rights.

When a person joins the military, he/she signs a blank check authorizing the government to do whatever it wants with his/her life. It is the job of the politicians to broker peace in any conflict and it is the job of the military to enforce the peace accord agreed to by the politicians.

But if the politicians send the military personnel to quell "separatists" then soldiers cannot be blamed for any consequences.

Soldiers are not politicians. Soldiers can only talk with their guns. It is not their duty to give lectures to "insurgents" on the virtues of giving up their activities and living in peace like one big happy family.

Politicians send soldiers to conflict areas without trying to find underlying causes. We had/have conflicts in Aceh, East Timor and Papua. Politicians are trying to broker a peace between Iran and U.S. but they needed a third country, Norway, to bring peace in Aceh.

As for East Timor, Indonesian soldiers have been fighting "separatists" for decades and one fine day politicians decide enough is enough and give freedom to East Timor. What about the soldiers who lost their lives fighting for an unknown cause?

What about the families of soldiers who died or lost their limbs trying to follow the orders of their Commander-in-Chief? Don't they need to be taken into confidence and be told that their services were really appreciated by the government, and that the government will do everything necessary to protect and help them?

What is going on in Papua? We only read in the media about soldiers killing separatists. How come no politicians travel there to talk to the so-called separatists? Is it too far to travel? Are they afraid of mosquitoes in the Papuan capital?

It is high time for the military commander or President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to speak up in defense of our soldiers. He can order his representative in the UNSC to abstain from the vote on sanctions against Iran but he cannot abstain from his duty to his soldiers.

Just look at George Bush - he is trying his best to protect his soldiers from being prosecuted for war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan because he knows he grossly misused the blank check given to him by his soldiers.

YASH
Jakarta

 

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