CIVILIAN SUPREMACY: Newly appointed Constitutional Court chief Moh. Mahfud M.D. (left) and Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Djoko Santoso (right) leave the podium after speaking at a TNI forum in Jakarta on Friday. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

In an effort to shed its tarnished image as a violent and abusive institution, the Indonesian Military (TNI) on Friday began a three-day training program for senior officers on human rights and the Constitution.

The Constitutional Court is helping the military provide some 200 of its middle- and high-ranking officers with training on the amended Constitution, the Constitutional Court's function and the principles of human rights.

TNI chief Gen. Djoko Santoso said an understanding of the Constitution, law and human rights by TNI officers was crucial in establishing a professional military institution within a democratic country.

"Success in a military operation is no longer determined merely by military and technical factors, but also by upholding the law and human rights in the process of achieving the objectives," he said at the opening ceremony of the training program.

The TNI has been accused of widespread violence across the country, including alleged gross human rights violations during its military operations in East Timor, Papua, Aceh and other areas, even during the current reform era.

A report released by the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF) found TNI and police personnel, as well as civilian authorities, consistently and systematically cooperated with and provided significant support to pro-Indonesia militias, thus contributing to unbridled violence in East Timor in 1999.

The CTF said those responsible included former Army Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) chief Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto, former transmigration minister Gen. (ret) Hendropriyono, former Udayana military commander Maj. Gen. (ret) Adam Damiri and his former deputy Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon.

The National Commission on Human Rights said it uncovered numerous human rights violation cases in Papua by the military between 1963 and 2002. The rights body has vowed to launch investigations into the cases.

Past military operations in Aceh gave rise to reports of mass arrests, detentions, torture, disappearances and murders of local residents, amid an atmosphere of repression. Today, conditions in the province are vastly improved, following the signing of a peace deal in 2005 by the government and the Free Aceh Movement.

The TNI has also been accused of playing roles in several other incidents in which hundreds of people were brutally killed, including the Talang Sari massacre, the Tanjung Priok mass killings and May 1998 riots.

However, no TNI general has yet been convicted of any of these gross rights violations, despite reports of overwhelming evidence against them.

Constitutional Court chief Moh. Mahfud M.D. expressed hope the training would raise TNI officers' awareness of the military's position within the Constitution, adding human rights principles were now part of the amended Constitution.

"So the TNI can now understand violating human rights principles means violating the Constitution," he said in his keynote address at the event.

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