Government will dissolve Kamra despite threat of protest

JAKARTA (JP): Despite facing threats of violent protest, the government will continue with its plan to dissolve the civilian guards of the People's Security (Kamra) on Wednesday.

"Due to the National Police's tight agenda for its year-end activities, Kamra will officially be dissolved tomorrow (Wednesday)," spokesman for the Ministry of Defense for foreign cooperation Commodore A.F.M. Kamto Soetirto told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

"By the end of this year, the police are supposed to concentrate only on securing the two religious holidays, Christmas and Idul Fitri," he said.

Kamto said the ceremony to dissolve Kamra will be held at each city police or police precinct and will be presided over by each city police chief and the police precinct chief, respectively.

"During the ceremony, we (government) will give them (Kamra members) certificates of service and compensation," he said.

He, however, declined to mention the amount of the compensation.

The government had earlier promised to give compensation to about 36,000 Kamra, which is equivalent to a Kamra member's four months salary.

Each Kamra member was paid Rp 200,000 (US$21) per month last year. Their salary was increased to Rp 250,000 per month this year.

Kamra was established in 1998 based on the Law No. 56/1998 for civilian militia. The government initially recruited 41,000 Kamra members, but the number has decreased due to desertion, dismissal and various other reasons.

The 1998 Law stipulates that Kamra members will serve for one year, with maximum extension period of one year. Their service will end on Dec. 31, 2000.

The Jakarta administration, which houses a total 12,000 Kamra members, has announced that it had found jobs for 8,000 Kamra members, some 2,500 of whom will be employed by the administration as city public order officials and the remaining 5,500 by private companies, such as PT Astra Motors, with positions as security guards.

Meanwhile, the fate of the remaining 4,000 Kamra members in the capital remains uncertain.

Kamto suggested that any Kamra members seeking positions in the Indonesian Military (TNI) or the National Police, should wait until June or July next year.

"TNI has a fixed recruitment period, between June and July each year. If only TNI was to recruit Kamra members, then probably only 10 of them would meet the requirements," he said.

Earlier on Monday, the Kamra members threatened to run amok if the government does not give assurances about their future in the next three days.

Chief of Kamra's Surakarta, Central Java, detachment P.D. Prihanto, who led about 1,000 Kamra in a rally from the Jakarta Police Headquarters to the House of Representatives (DPR) building on Tuesday, separately said that Kamra members were demanding assurances that their future would be secure.

"We do not care about the certificates, or anything else. We only ask the government to keep its promise and gain entry for us into the National Police, the TNI, or government offices," Prihanto said.

He accused the government of talking nonsense when it said that it had jobs for the Kamra members.

"PT Astra has set requirements which are higher than the ones needed to join the Military Academy (Akabri), while none of our members from Jakarta have been employed by the Jakarta administration," Prihanto said.

Most of the Kamra members are only elementary school graduates. They were trained for only 11 days prior to being recruited to help the police maintain nationwide order and security.

Prihanto also noted that Kamra members did not sign a working contract with the government when they joined to help the police force. (02)