ABRI defuses tension with food bazaar

ABRI defuses tension with food bazaar

By Ridwan Max Sijabat

BANDUNG (JP): Contrary to charges, the Armed Forces have not
responded to intensifying demonstrations over staple food prices
with force alone. Instead, the military go to places in Java
where the economic crisis is biting hardest and distribute basic
commodities, an officer says.

In cooperation with local businesspeople, regional military
commands have been launching operations to provide basic
commodities at below prevailing market prices, according to Maj.
Gen. Djamari Chaniago, commander of the West Java Military
Command.

This approach has been effective in preventing public unrest
and violence, he told reporters.

The military has also established labor-intensive projects to
absorb newly redundant workers, who now number around 2 million
in Java, he said.

Estimates of the number of workers who have lost their jobs
due to the monetary crisis range between two million and 13
million.

Chaniago said the West Java Military Command had secured 1,300
plots of vacant land in several areas of the province. Around 200
unemployed workers will be hired to cultivate the land at a wage
of Rp 7,500 (less than US$1 per day.

"They will be employed to grow crops such as soybean and corn,
based on a profit sharing system," he said.

He conceded that the West Java Military Command had failed to
anticipate the food rioting in Majalengka and other locations
along the border between West and Central Java earlier this year.

"But they provide us with a good lesson and will help prevent
similar incidents in the future," he added.

Islam

More than 30 towns around Indonesia were rocked by food riots
which deteriorated into looting and vandalism of shops owned by
the ethnic Chinese minority, who dominate the nation's economy.

Officials, observers and military officers have attempted to
explain why the riots took place. Some blame the incidents on
faceless "third parties."

Djamari echoed this theory, saying the violence and student
protests, which in some cases lead to clashes with security
forces, had been provoked by a third party seeking to discredit
the government and the military.

He said a small group campaigning for an independent Islamic
state -- known as the NII or Indonesian Islamic State -- was
behind the riots and protests. He also accused the group of
coercing funds from local residents to finance their political
activities.

"We have evidence (to back up the allegation). We call on the
residents and students in the province to be wary of their
campaign," he said.

Recalling the spread of the banned Islamic group DI/TII in the
province, he added that West Java has a tradition of producing
heretic Islamic groups.

Students

Chaniago said the West Java Military Command plans to continue
trying to persuade students to end demonstrations and enter
dialog on the crisis with the military.

He also warned the students against taking their protests onto
the streets.

"The Armed Forces will be patient as long as the
demonstrations are held on campus and do not slander the national
leadership," he said.

Maj. Gen. Mardiyanto, the commander of the Diponegoro Military
Command which oversees Central Java and Yogyakarta, said he was
taking an approach similar to Chaniago to contain unrest in his
jurisdiction.

"What we are doing complies with orders from the ABRI
leadership," he said. "We will launch repressive measures only as
the last resort."

"I believe that the people of Central Java still respect
traditional Javanese values emphasizing brotherhood and
togetherness. Any problems facing the nation can be solved,
provided we are united," he said.

He conceded that a number of riots which took place in his
jurisdiction over the past two months were caused by the severe
impact of the monetary crisis, citing an incident last Wednesday
in Jepara in which several soldiers and police officers joined
rioters vandalizing shops and houses.

Mardiyanto, who will soon become assistant to the Armed Forces
Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs, planned to defuse tension by
holding dialog with student groups.

He said he had held several formal and informal discussions
with student activists, rectors and government critics in the
province to inform them of ABRIs stance on the situation.

"ABRI do not want radical reform because it would inflict too
great a cost on the nation," he said. "ABRI supports gradual
economic and political reform."

A slight variation in Armed Forces' tactics to contain the
situation can be seen in East Java, where the military have
solicited the cooperation of the province's youth in operations
conducted around busy marketplaces.

Brig. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif, chief of staff of the Brawijaya
Military Command, which supervises East Java and Madura, said
that over the past three weeks, thousands of soldiers, students
and staff from the provincial office of the State Logistics
Agency have been deployed in traditional markets and shopping
centers to prevent further rioting.

"Command-posts have been set up in markets and shopping
centers in anticipation of riots targeting shop-owners," he said
over the weekend.

He justified posting soldiers and police in local markets by
saying that the province was prone to social unrest and rioting.
Trouble hot-spots include Jember, Situbondo and several other
coastal towns with populations of traditional farmers and
fishermen.