Soroti Military Violence, GMNI Jakarta asks TNI to focus on defense

JAKARTA - The Indonesian National Student Movement (GMNI) DKI Jakarta has highlighted the prevalence of alleged acts of militarism involving TNI members against civilians. They are asked to refocus on their main task of maintaining national defense and stopping actions that injure the civil space.

This was conveyed by the Chairman of the DPD GMNI DKI Jakarta Deodatus Sunda Se in response to a number of events, including the involvement of two members of the TNI, Serka DS and Serka AS, in the robbery case that occurred in Lebak, Banten. This action is considered to be a serious alarm because there is disguise, kidnapping, to confiscation of the victim's property.

"The series of violent events, police criminality, and the expansion of military structures into the domestic sphere that deprive the small people of their economic rights are becoming more and more blind," Deodatus said in a written statement, Thursday, June 4.

"Patterns of repression and military superiority that resemble the dark era of the New Order are now clearly revived in the land of Banten," he added.

In addition to criminal cases allegedly involving TNI members, the GMNI Jakarta also highlighted the alleged eviction and confiscation of land belonging to residents of Rancapinang Village, Pandeglang, Banten, which was associated with the development plan of the Regional Military Command Headquarters (Kodam).

Deodatus emphasized that his party rejected the construction of military facilities if it sacrificed the rights of the community to the land they owned.

GMNI Jakarta also urged members of the TNI who were suspected of committing a general criminal act to be processed through the general judicial mechanism, not the military court.

"The military justice mechanism for civilian crimes is a tangible form of legal impunity that maintains the mentality of impunity for the authorities and damages the sense of justice for the victims," he said.

He also reminded that security and public order affairs were the responsibility of the National Police as an institution that served in the civil sphere. The TNI, said Deodatus, should not handle street crime such as robbery.

He assessed that the use of the pretext of Military Operation Other than War (OMSP) to involve the TNI in handling civilian criminality was a forced step.

"The intrusion of soldiers into the domestic-civil realm has proven to be counterproductive, damaging the reputation of the TNI institution, and like the case in Lebak, it actually triggers individuals to act beyond the limits of the law and even become perpetrators of the crime itself," he concluded.