[Unpad.ac.id, 26/07/2016] The occurrence of a number of Indonesian citizens taken hostage by an armed group of origin southern Philippines, Abu Sayyaf, in the last 3 months is not a merely a national or domestic issue. One state could only do as much.
The statement was delivered by International Law Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Universitas Padjadjaran, R. Achmad Gusman Chess Siswandi SH, LL, M., Ph.D. in the event of Unpad Responding entitled “Maritime Regions and Hostage Release” in Executive Lounge Unpad, Jln. Dipati Ukur No. 35 Bandung, Tuesday (26/07).
“For the hostage case, it would not be enough to rely on the Philippines alone, but Indonesia is involved, Malaysia also is involved, and we draw even more broadly, ASEAN also has an interest, as is the case in the region,” said Gusman.
Gusman also appreciated the joint action agreed by Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia in dealing with such cases. According to him, this cooperation needs to be done with due regard to the sovereignty of each country.
Another speaker, expert in International Relations from Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Prof. Dr. Obsatar H. Sinaga, S.IP., M.Si said that to solve hostage problem, hard or soft diplomacy is no longer needed. What’s needed is smart diplomacy. One of his suggestions was forIndonesian soldiers to help the Philippines to attack the Abu Sayyaf group.
According to Prof. Obsatar, paying ransom for hostage citizen with a certain amount of money was not the right thing. Giving ransom instead will be bad, not only can co-fund their radical actions, but also even make Indonesia an easy target for the action of the next hostage because Indonesia is considered a rich country that will make up for any of its citizens were taken hostage.
He also considers there is a hidden agenda behind the citizen hostage some time ago. Hostage release was not purely through soft diplomacy.
“If we pay the ransom, they would consider us again and next time they could hold more hostage and ask for more ransom,” he said.
Meanwhile, Colonel Timothy Triswan Larosa of Sesko TNI AU said that to resolve hostage issue, Indonesian military forces cannot simply go down without agreement with the relevant country (the Philippines). He expected that ASEAN Security Community to facilitate forming a separate unit, to analyze whether an army of a country allowed to enter or not.
“Until the unit is established, in my opinion, we could not enter the state. Since the military will be very limited with things that involved sovereignty, “said Col. Timothy who is currently pursuing doctoral studies at Universitas Padjadjaran. *
Reported by Artanti Hendriyana / eh
