Jakarta has new TNI commander
Jakarta has new TNI commander
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Maj. Gen. Djoko Santoso, a former Pattimura Military
commander, replaced Maj. Gen. Achmad Yahya as the new Jakarta
Military commander on Tuesday.
The Indonesian Military (TNI) Headquarters said Djoko's
transfer to Jakarta was part of the regular rotation of top-
ranking officers.
Djoko, also a former chief of security restoration operations
in Ambon, replaces Yahya, who is being transferred to the Army
Headquarters as the inspectorate-general.
Djoko, who was born in Surakarta, Central Java, in August
1952, is a 1975 graduate of the National Military Academy. He was
appointed chief of staff of Central Java's Diponegoro Regional
Military Command in 2000.
Djoko, who is married with two children, was assigned to head
the Malang-based Second Division of the Army's Strategic Reserves
Command in East Java in 2001.
He played an important role in ending conflicts in Indonesia's
eastern islands, capped by the signing of the Feb. 12, 2002,
Malino peace deal to end the sectarian conflict in Maluku.
Djoko will face a daunting task in safeguarding Jakarta ahead
of and during the 2004 general elections.
Already politicians seem to be jockeying for position during
the elections, including allegations that some opposition
politicians have been financing street rallies.
The bombing on Monday morning inside the National Police
Headquarters complex underlined the seriousness of security
concerns in the city.
The military said the transfer of Djoko to Jakarta was part of
a routine rotation, though Yahya was only in the position for six
months.
Yahya is no stranger to difficult postings, having been the
Sulawesi Military commander when a communal conflict broke out in
Poso, Central Sulawesi, leaving hundreds of people dead and
thousands of others displaced.
Yahya also was the Jakarta Military chief of staff when the
capital was rocked by antigovernment rallies, which ended with
troops firing on protesting students in November 1998 and
September 1999.