Military ready to put hoodlums out of business
Military ready to put hoodlums out of business
JAKARTA (JP): City Military Commander Maj. Gen. Djadja
Suparman said soldiers were ready to assist the police and city
administration in getting rid of hoodlums in the city, whose
existence is frightening residents.
"We will back up their plan to get the hoodlums in order. But
I disagreed with the stated elimination or termination of
hoodlums," Djadja said after a post-Idul Fitri gathering with
journalists in the command headquarters on Friday night.
He said the elimination of hoodlums would be almost
impossible.
He said he believed hoodlums could be changed into good people
if they were given advice, training and discipline.
If required, the military command would cooperate with police
and city administration to organize a training course for the
hoodlums, he said.
Commenting on the violence at Kampung Rambutan bus terminal,
in which where two people were killed on Wednesday night, Djadja
asked the press not to relate the incident to ethnic issues.
"I find that the press frequently links many cases of unrest,
including that at Kampung Rambutan, with sensitive issues of
tribal affiliations, religion, race and societal groups. Is it
good for us?" he said.
The Kampung Rambutan incident, which quickly became a full
scale brawl, was believed have been a clash between people from
North Sumatra (known as Batak) and West Java (known as Sunda).
Asked whether the recent cases of violence were provoked by
certain groups, Djadja refused to comment. But he urged the press
not to blow up the issue of alleged provocateurs.
"The media could be a provocateur as well if it influences
people to be angry and violent," the two-star general said.
He said that the command's intelligence department was still
working hard to bring to light certain people suspected of
provoking recent riots.
He confirmed that the command had questioned a youth leader
over a report that he was involved in a series of unrests.
"However, the youth leader strongly denied the accusation,"
Djadja said, urging the public to give information to the
military command if they had information about any possible
impending unrest.
"The intelligence posts at our military compounds are still
open to information from the public," he said. (jun)