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TNI agrees to secure country's prisons
The Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H
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he Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna H. Laoly signed a cooperation agreement with the Indonesian Military (TNI) on Thursday under which the military will deploy its personnel to guard prisons throughout the country as the ministry has run short of qualified prison guards.
'The TNI has quite good human resources that we need for prison guards. Currently we lack personnel to guard the prisons,' Yasonna told reporters at TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta on Thursday.
Yasonna said that many prisons, holding hundreds of inmates and detainees at times only had between seven and 10 prison guards.
Under the agreement with the TNI, the ministry will join TNI chief Gen. Moeldoko in selecting military personnel who will be assigned to take on the work.
He said priority would be given to personnel who were nearing their retirement.
'These personnel are well-trained and the ministry won't need to arrange extra training for them. They are ready for deployment,' Yasonna said, adding that the ministry needed at least 220 such personnel this year.
The agreement covers a number of issues from details of security for prisons to prisoner development and prison guard training.
The agreement would also allow for the TNI to provide psychological training for prison guards, discipline coaching for prisoners, security assistance for certain prisons, personnel deployment as prison guards and the loan of non-standard TNI weapons to the directorate general of correctional institutions of the Law and Human Rights Ministry.
- TNI to deploy personnel to guard prisons
- Military can also lend weapons to prison authorities
- Rights group has warned of TNI overreach
Yasonna has also personally asked the TNI chief to provide firearms for prison guards, especially at correctional facilities that are vulnerable to security threats.
Moeldoko said the TNI had run a check on which resources it could soon deploy for the task.
'Prisons in Sumatra, for instance, will get reinforcements from our military commands in Sumatra. With this arrangement, the soldiers can remain close to their families,' Moeldoko said.
Moeldoko added that the TNI would provide the assistance for as long as necessary.
'If the ministry finds other sources of human resources that meet its standards, we won't need to help them anymore,' he said.
In recent months, the TNI has signed agreements with various counterparts, including ministries, state-owned enterprises and state institutions. Data from rights group Imparsial shows that the TNI has so far signed 21 agreements.
One of the latest agreements was between the TNI and the transportation minister on Feb. 20. Under the agreement the TNI will be able to deploy its personnel to secure vital transportation facilities like seaports, airports, railway networks and bus stations.
On Jan. 8 the Army and the Agriculture Ministry signed an agreement on agriculture cooperation, which will allow the military from regional commands throughout the country to provide assistance to local governments and their respective agriculture agencies.
Imparsial has expressed concern about the signing of such agreements and called on President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to annul them.
'The President should revoke all the agreements and bring the TNI back to its original role,' Al Araf of Imparsial said.
Previously, Moeldoko said the TNI had won the blessing of Jokowi to take part in non-security programs, especially development programs in the country.
Moeldoko has insisted that the TNI will not revert to the socio-political role it performed during the New Order era.
'The TNI doesn't have any intention of returning to the New Order. We have to draw the line between what is past and present,' Moeldoko said recently.
