Noegroho concedes intelligence officers need improvement

JAKARTA (JP): Chief of city police Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman confessed on Thursday that his intelligence personnel failed to properly carry out their duty to predict and prevent the rampant riots that rocked the city this year.

"Our intelligence unit is not well trained to anticipate the social and political turmoil which was stirred by irresponsible political groupings," the two-star general said in a year-end meeting with journalists.

He pointed out that it was Army intelligence officials who had for years been dealing with such cases.

"Before the government announced the structural separation of the National Police from the Armed Forces (now the Indonesian Military (TNI)) on April 1, the city police only specialized in crime intelligence," he said.

According to Noegroho, riots sparked in the city this year were mostly related to political activities and were organized by irresponsible political groupings. He gave no names.

"The phenomenon may continue in 2000. So Jakarta Police intelligence officers will have to further improve their security affairs intelligence," he said.

He stressed that the city police would change its vision to not only focus on criminal cases, since peace and order within the community here had also faced a serious threat from political and social aspects.

"However, the city police will not be involved in politics, although it now handles security affairs," he said.

Noegroho played down a statement aired by chief of the Jakarta Military Command Maj. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, who last week warned residents of Jakarta that several groups had been plotting to spark religious conflicts in the capital over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

"We have yet to identify the certain groups which intend to spark riots by exploiting religious sentiments," he said.

Ryamizard also said that the command's intelligence unit had observed several meetings held by the groups, discussing the instigation of riots during the festive season.

"But we consider the information as an input to our efforts to anticipate the riots," Noegroho said.

During the media briefing on Thursday, Noegroho said the city police recorded 17,817 criminal cases throughout this year, slightly lower than last year's figure of 18,659.

"The city police were able to solve 10,243 cases. It's slightly lower than the 10,678 cases solved last year," he said.

"A criminal case occurred every 29.1 minutes this year, compared to every 27.8 minutes last year," he said.

In terms of mayoralty which recorded the highest crime in the capital, the top place still went to Central Jakarta with a total of 3,267 cases.

"That's followed by East Jakarta with 3,004 cases. But crime cases drastically dropped in Tangerang from 2,706 cases last year to 1,612 this year," he said.

The major crimes this year continued to be violent robberies (4,756 cases) and vehicle thefts (3,236 cases).

He said the city had faced a significant increase of street rallies this year.

"Last year there were only 972 demonstrations. But this year we recorded a total of 1,259 rallies," he said.

Noegroho reminded Jakarta residents that the city could face a significant increase in crime cases with a wide range of modus operandi in the coming year.

"The people, therefore, should participate in and assist the police in stopping crime. To prevent the group clashes, for example, residents should not be easily provoked," he said. (asa)