Military drum band

00:04

00:17

Williams:  It's an awesome fighting force, well armed with the latest weaponry. With more than 200,000 men it's among the world's biggest armies  - its sheer numbers would make it a formidable foe for any aggressor.

But in reality this army is not in the business of war, it's in the business of politics - and for decades the Indonesian army's enemy has been its own people.

Rioting/military shooting

00:58

In the 32 years under President Suharto, they became his private army of oppressors - ruthlessly propping up an ageing dictator,  consolidating their position as one of the most politically powerful armies on earth.

1:14

Last year in the death throes of Suharto's rule excessive violence by the police - then under military control - and the army itself finally ended what public support they had left - but not the power.

Said

Super:

SALIM SAID

Military Analyst

1:29

Said: The military is still very important, I don't say very dominant, but definitely very important a very important political power in this country.

Military training

1:39

Williams: Now deeply distrusted - the army's desperately defending its political role as the guardians of national unity.

Susilo:  The most

Susilo

Super:

Lt. General SUSILO YUDHOYONO

Chief of Staff, Armed Forces

1:49

threatening factor is the possibility of social disintegration in this country. So we have to prevent it.

Military training

2:00

Williams:  But as the army digs in there are now  powerful forces looking to push soldiers out of politics.

Rais

Super:

AMIEN RAIS

Presidential Candidate

2:10

Rais:   In the long term, of course, just like other modern and advanced democracies, the military must be contained to the barracks.

2:28

Williams: This has been a intensely secretive organisation - so it's a measure of the struggle to improve their image that Indonesia's army has, for the first time, opened itself to outsiders.

Map

2:49

Music

Aceh scenery

3:00

Williams:  At the northern edge of the archipelago the province of Aceh is rich in resources like oil and gas.

But the profits have flowed to the centralised seat of power in Jakarta while the people here remain poor.

And as in so many other provinces it's left the locals angry and rebellious.

People in Aceh

3:20

In a bid to defuse growing tensions, the Habibe Government has offered Aceh a better deal.

Williams and Ismail meet with men

3:27

But for many it's too little too late and some are taking up arms for independence.

Williams:  They hate you?

Ismail: They hate me.

Williams:  Who are these men?

Ismail:  This is my guy...

Williams:   Where do they come from?

3:42

Ismail:  They come from the village.

Williams:   From the village.

3:46

Williams:  Ismail Syaputra may look an unlikely guerrilla - but his illegal Aceh Merdeka -- or Free Aceh Movement -- is gaining wide grassroots support.

Ismail

Super:

ISMAIL SYAPUTRA

Free Aceh Movement

3:55

Ismail:  ...colonialism. But if we independence, we got hundred percent, okay? We got hundred percent, no compromise with them. Not, we don't have to ask any permission with them. We just have to ??. We have to ?? and this is belong to ?? belong to them.

Photo of Ismail in police station

4:17

Williams:   At the local army headquarters Ismail is chief public enemy. And Major Asrobudi is one of those charged with catching him in a bid to help keep Indonesia together.

4:24

Asrobudi:  Because up till now he says he's the one who leads.  It's him causing the trouble.

Asrobudi and Williams

According to their perception, they're a free country.  Therefore, they don't want to be part of the Republic of Indonesia.

Interpreter:  Is there any chance that you will give up Aceh?

Asrobudi:  Oh no, never ever - because it is an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia.

Soldiers at barracks

5:04

Williams:  To keep it part of Indonesia, Major Budi's troops are in a state of undeclared war against locals -- and they're taking casualties.

Separatists are kidnapping and killing Indonesian soldiers. But like the rest of the army, B Company of 112 Battalion is a tight knit unit . When they lost a fellow soldier --

Sergeant Raman Bakar -- all hell broke loose.

Shots of shootings at Aceh

5:35

An aggressive army search for the missing sergeant sparked a protest that led to the worst bloodshed here in years. More than forty civilians died, and despite these images the army denies shooting anyone -- except in self-defence.

6:02

Asrobudi:  We only fired warning shots upwards.

Asrobudi

Even the bullets we used were not live - just blanks and rubber bullets.  They attacked us - a great number of them.  We had to defend ourselves.

6:17

Williams:  Remember this is an army dealing with its own people

Widjojo

Super:

Lt. General AGUS WIDJOJO

Commandant, Staff College Bandung

6:21

Widjojo:  Well I think in a matter or in a situation like that, it's a situation facing also those people, groups, aspirations that also have weapons and they can kill and sometimes before we get killed and in order to protect the  society -- not to be killed -- then sometimes we have to shoot, yeah.

Soldiers look at map/Looking for Raman

6:59

Williams:  The Indonesian army never gives up on its own.

Sergeant Raman has been missing for a month, the civilian dead are all buried, but B Company is still looking for their kidnapped officer. These men have no doubt they're working for the greater national good.

But as in East Timor and Irian Jaya the people in Aceh now fear and hate their army. In all these places the use of lethal force has fuelled demands for freedom.

Capt. Toto on back of truck

7:32

Toto:  The demands for a referendum started because people get fed up with this being a military operations area.  They felt rejected by the government and chose to leave Indonesia.

7:54

Williams:  As they head inland in search of Sergeant Raman,  they're confronted with signs of defiance --demands for a vote on leaving the republic. The crescent flag of a free Aceh tell these troops they're seen as an occupying force. And there's a sense of history repeating itself. Fifty years ago fiercely independent Aceh helped lead the fight against the Dutch for a free Indonesia.

Newsreel footage

8:33

Williams:   They started as heroes.  Indonesia's army came from the people; a guerrilla force rising from every village to end Dutch colonial rule. But as far back as the fifties the army's main focus was inward.

Bickering politicians strengthened the army's political hand.

Newsreel narrator:  The place of the armed forces in Indonesia has always been seen as crucial. Before last year's attempted coup, it was seen as a balance to the communists.

9:09

Williams:  Ever since the army has never been far from the centre of power.

A position assured when one of their own - General Suharto - eased the reigns of power from national hero Sukarno.

9:21

Newsreel narrator:  The armed forces now form the main political force in Indonesia. The military has taken an ever-growing role in the running of the country. Military  men now hold half the cabinet positions. There are now more than 250 military members in the People's Consultative Congress. This gives the armed forces a third of the membership of the country's highest legislative body.

9:47

Williams:   Under Suharto, the army refined its  doctrine of dwifungsi -- its dual social and military function . It targeted any political or social force considered a threat to the ruling regime. The army - or TNI as it's now known in Indonesia - became the sharp edge of Suharto's control.

10:07

Human rights lawyers say 2,000 people went missing during Suharto's reign. It's a role the army now for the first time admits was wrong.

Agus

10:18

Agus:   TNI was brought to play that role in support of a certain political aspiration.

Williams:   Of President Suharto ?

Agus:  Yes, and that is I think the start,  when it was seen that TNI was not playing the part that it should play, which is representing the interest of the whole nation.

Riot

10:51

Williams:  Far from defending the whole nation, some units used kidnap, torture and killings in a desperate bid to defend Suharto's rule. It tainted the entire force.

Said:  The military only the tool of the government

Said

Super:

SALIM SAID
Military Analyst

11:06

and the longer Suharto stayed there, the more authoritarian the government is.

Williams:  Salim Said is Indonesia's leading military analyst - a veteran insider to top brass thinking.

11:19

Said:  At the same time, people thought what are you doing while you claim yourself as??, solider of the people.  How could you do that? This is the reason why they are now thinking hard - the armed forces - generals - thinking what was wrong with us?

Army in training session

11:40

Williams: While the leader has gone the army's incredible machinery of social control remains.

Soldier:  ...public security aims to overcome problems by early detection...

11:53

Williams:  Throughout Indonesia the military doubles as a local council. They know everything from the number of nursing mothers to the use of public phones. They say it's for development, but it is in effect a complete mirror of civilian government.

Williams and officer

12:12

Williams:  Why?

Officer:  Because the Indonesian Army is a development innovator. We have to give an example to guide the community in social affairs.

Drain cleaning project

12:25

Williams:  Today they direct drain cleaning - but they also collect intelligence on political views and can stop you getting a job. It's such deep roots in everyday  Indonesian society that won't be easy to remove.

Widjojo

Super:

Lt. General AGUS WIDJOJO

Commandant, Staff College Bandung

12:41

Widjojo:  We found out in the 1950s that liberal democracy was a very slow process in developing the country and we still have yet to believe that the politicians can lead and develop the country as required.

Rais

Super:

AMIEN RAIS

Presidential Candidate

13:07

Rais:  Of course, the military leaders want to hold their present position now, just like this, but on the other hand, the students are very impatient. They want to see the complete change of the military picture in this country. They don't agree with dual function of the military.

Rais at press conference

13:32

Williams:  The most sensitive part of that function is 38 seats reserved for the army in parliament. That's half what it was last year. But presidential candidate and key power broker in any future coalition, Amien Rais, represents powerful new forces which want them out of politics altogether.

Rais

13:51

Rais:  I don't want to see any free seats in the parliament for the military because it is against our constitution. All the parliamentary members must be elected through general elections, but it takes time so maybe the problem of dual function could be solved in like say six to ten years .

Wiranto

14:27

Williams:  The pace of that change is up to this man - the powerful armed forces chief General Wiranto. He's the army's top soldier, defence minister and a potential president.

As a long-time Suharto associate he's seen as an old order survivor. At the time of Suharto's resignation he committed the army to protecting the now despised leader from public anger.

Rais

14:54

Rais:  He is not concerned with his people's fate. And he does not believe in democracy, he is simply a pure military man.

Williams with Wiranto

15:06

Williams:    Thank you very much for seeing us.

Wiranto:  You're welcome.

15:09

Williams:  With the fate of a nation resting on his shoulders - General Wiranto rarely grants foreign interviews. He agreed to see me in his role as a figurehead of reform.

And he has brought in changes - separating the police from the army - and banning serving army officers from thousands of civilian government posts. These are the biggest reforms in more than thirty years -- but he leaves most of the talking to his subordinates.

Susilo at press conference

15:40

Williams:  And these days the army's number two - General Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is doing a lot of talking.

15:49

Across Indonesia he's under pressure to justify the army's continuing role in politics. He says they are getting out - but in their own time.

Susilo at doorstop

Super:

Lt. General SUSILO YUDHOYONO

Chief of Staff, Armed Forces

15:59

Bambang:  There is a talk that in certain degree there must be a political role for the military in developing countries. The question is, how deep, how far, and what kind of role do play ??. in our situation here we have to build our new framework, that the political rules of the military is to be agreed by everybody, must be based on our national consensus.

16:26

Williams:  But your critics are saying that the reforms aren't quick enough, that they aren't deep enough? What's your response to that?

16:32

Susilo:  Well, we have to decide our reform agenda priority, and the stages of implementations. We will conduct reform without creating problems inside our organisations.

Salim

16:50

Salim:  Wiranto is very much under pressure from the senior who retired people who would like to see him become the strong man again, and from people inside the armed forces, by hard people who hate the civilians. If this reformation will not proceed properly, election will not produce a strong and capable civilian government, then you bet -- the empire will strike back.

Soldiers at concert

17:29

Williams:  Accutely aware of the army's image problem, General Wiranto has told his ground troops to get down in order to lighten up.

Such regimented frivolity, a new part of the army's efforts to show a friendlier face, even if it does have its distractions.

17:56

Williams:  As part of the fun, Bandung's regional defence battalion is kicking up their heels for their 53rd anniversary. But this year it's a bittersweet celebration. When these men went through training there was much more certainty about the army's popularity - and its future. That's all changed.

Cadets

18:26

Magelang cadet college is known as the Nail of Java -- a tough boot school for the next generation of military leaders.  For three years they go through the same punishing routine as their predecessors. Eighteen year old Emir knows that after last year's army savagery something's got to change.

Emir

Super:

EMIR HERI

Cadet Corporal

18:50

Emir:  For us, for the new officers, it's our job to get back that good name for the army.

19:14

Williams: Image is one thing, but their job remains the same. Like most of their superiors, these young men will be sent to earn their stripes in the troubled fringes of what's been Jakarta's empire -- Aceh, Irian Jaya and East Timor.

Widjojo

Super:

Lt. General AGUS WIDJOJO

Commandant, Staff College Bandung

19:37

Widjojo:  Why is the armed forces very much concerned? It is because of the characteristics of the country which is full of diversity, and fragile geographically, and demographically, in which a little mistake that we make it could be very costly to the country.

Military confront demonstrators

19:57

Williams:   One such mistake the military clearly dislikes is President Habibe's promise of an independence ballot on East Timor.

Fearing its effect on other restive parts of the country -- it's an open secret most military men do not support the vote. At the local level at least the military is working with and helping arm pro-Indonesia militias.

Rais

Rais

Super:

AMIEN RAIS

Presidential Candidate

20:23

Rais:  It's very easy for the military to stop it if they have the political commitment to disarm these people, it is very easy for them.

East Timor has become a kind of very personal pride, you know. If we let Timor be independent and then they think that they are humiliated.

Soldiers in Aceh

20:54

Williams:   Back in Aceh, the soldiers don't have to wait for humiliation, it's already walking with them. Deploying as if in a foreign land - this is the seventh time they've come searching for Sergeant Raman.

Toto

21:08

Capt Toto: I'm looking for my friend Sargent Raman Bakar. Maybe he's around this area.

21:26

Williams:  Sergeant Raman has been murdered. The search is no longer for a hostage, but instead, a shallow grave.  It's usually what happens when a solider is kidnapped by rebels here -- God knows they're lost enough of their own. Finding those responsible is next to impossible -they don't even know who the enemy is.

Idrul

Super: 

IDRUL HAKIM

Company Commander

21:50

Idrul:  It's not clear who the enemies are because they are mixing with the people around us.  So it's very difficult to spot which ones are the enemies and which ones are not.

Idrul leading prayers

22:13

Williams:  Morning. and Idrul leads devout members of B company in prayers for the soul of Sergeant Raman. And he won't be the last casualty  in this war no one can win.

22:26

But as with politics the army believes it has the solutions for many national problems .And it will only submit itself fully to civilian rule when it decides there's a strong and stable government. So far the signs of that happening are not good.

CREDITS:

Reporter            EVAN WILLIAMS

Camera             TIM DEGAL

Sound               STUART MILLER

Research           DINA ANTONIO