MILY'S INVOLVEMENT IN ANTI-TERRORISM FIGHT MUST BASED ON PROCEDURES: LEGISLATOR

Jakarta, Aug 24 (ANTARA) - The military's involvement in the fight against terrorists must be done according to certain procedures, a legislator said.

"The involvement must be based on what is known as 'military assignment beyond war duties' as stipulated in the Law on the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI)," a member of the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission I for defense affairs, Andreas H Pareira, said here on Monday.

He made the remarks in response to public opinion on the need for TNI to be involved in the fight against terror acts which posed threats to state security.

"For us in the DPR's Commission I, terrorism is a disturbance to the country's security in the form of crime om a enormous scale," Pareira said.

However, no matter how enormous , a terror act remains a criminal act. "It is a crime against humanity that should be handled with law enforcement based on the principles of a law-abiding state," he said.

This means, he said, that the terror acts should not be handled with a way the military usually uses, or with a military enforcement.

"Therefore, intelligence that has to be operated in this case is law enforcement intelligence," he said.

However, the legislator said, in a critical situation as a result of terrorist threat, the President might consider (enforcing the military) and issue a political decision .

"(The political decision) can be in the form of a government regulation (PP) or a presidential decision (Perpres) to involve the military in a terrorist eradication operation," he said.