Alert centers to be permanent: Officials
Alert centers to be permanent: Officials
JAKARTA (JP): Two senior officials said yesterday that the aim
of the planned riot alert centers was not to solve transient
problems but to be permanent establishments.
Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung and Coordinating
Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman
separately denied speculation that the "alert command centers"
are to be created to anticipate possible trouble in the upcoming
general election.
"They're not being established only for the general election.
They will remain in existence afterwards," Feisal said during the
breaking-of-the-fast dinner at his official residence on Jl.
Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.
Soesilo said the general election, scheduled for May 29, was
not the reason for the establishment of the alert centers.
"We don't want to see this nation endangered by upheavals.
Therefore we are making every effort to prevent them from
happening," Soesilo said while hosting a similar breaking-of-the-
fast ceremony at the Jakarta telecommunications office in South
Jakarta.
He said he had no idea how long the alert centers might
operate. "Let's just wait and see," he said.
Feisal said that the alert centers would be stationed in every
one of the more than 240 district military commands nationwide.
"They will be run by the chiefs of the district military
commands," he said, while reports drawn up by the centers on
possible unrest will be brought to provincial administration
council meetings.
He dismissed speculation that the alert centers would take
over the role of the existing local security agency and the
police, or replace the internal security agency or the Agency for
Coordinating National Defense and Stability.
"The agency operates at the national and provincial levels,
while the alert command centers would be posted in regencies and
municipalities," he said.
"The alert centers will not take over the police's job either,
as they will only deal with preventive measures. If the
provincial administration council considers it necessary to take
action, the center will forward its report to the police," he
added.
Separately, Armed Forces spokesman Brig. Gen. Amir Syarifuddin
said the alert centers would be established nationwide on Jan.
30.
The creation of the centers was first announced by President
Soeharto last week when receiving managers of cooperatives owned
by the Islamic boarding schools.
Soeharto said the establishment of such centers was necessary
to prevent a recurrence of the riots that rocked the country over
the past two years. (imn/amd)
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