Army has new deputy chief

JAKARTA: Army chief Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu installed on Thursday Maj. Gen. Djoko Santoso as his deputy to replace Lt. Gen. Darsono, who is retiring.

On Wednesday Djoko turned over his post as chief of the Jakarta Military Command to Maj. Gen. Agustadi Sasongko Purnomo.

Djoko was top graduate of the Indonesian Military Academy in 1975 and spent most of his career at the Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) which was once led by Ryamizard,

In 2001, Djoko was assigned to Maluku to lead security restoration in the province, which had seen years of bloody sectarian conflict.

Djoko was born in the Central Java town of Surakarta in 1953. He had served in the former Indonesian province of East Timor in 1976, 1981 and 1988 as part of the Seroja military operations. He has also experience as a legislator when he served the House of Representatives' TNI faction in the late 1990s. -- JP