Poso has new district military commander

POSO, Central Sulawesi: Lt. Col. Kurnia Dewantara, the chief of the 1307 district military command in Poso, has been replaced by Lt. Col. IGK Ray Gunawan on Wednesday.

The replacement was made only a few days after attacks in three villages in Poso claimed nine lives. The reasons for the replacement are still unclear.

Kurnia will now assume the post of chief of the 1304 district military command in Gorontalo, North Sulawesi.

The chief of the 132 Tadulako resort military command, Col. Muh. Slamet, in his orders at the handover ceremony on Wednesday, instructed the new chief to closely monitor the security situation in the region, which includes Poso and Morowali, following recent disturbances there.

Masked gunmen attacked three villages in Poso on Oct. 12 leav ing nine people dead and 11 others injured. A similar incident occurred earlier on Oct. 10 in the neighboring regency of Morowa li, where three people were killed. He asserted that the Indonesian military (TNI) had to support the police in maintaining security in the region.

The ceremony was also attended by the chief of the Central Sulawesi Provincial Police, Brig. Gen. Taufiq Ridha, and officials from the local administration. -- Antara

;JP;ASA; ANPAa..r.. Across-jobless 20,000 people jobless in Pekalongan JP/5/ACROSS

20,000 people jobless in Pekalongan

PEKALONGAN, Central Java: At least 20,000 people, or some 10 percent of the total population here, are now jobless due to unfavorable economic conditions, an official has said.

Sofyan Adnan, the head of Pekalongan municipality's manpower office, said on Wednesday that business in the municipality had been slow since the economic crisis of 1997.

Due to the poor business environment, firms in Pekalongan were unable to absorb school and university graduates, he said.

Several major textile and fish processing firms in the municipality had laid off employees recently to avoid going bankrupt, thus adding to the city's unemployment problem, he said.

Adnan hoped that people would not rely only on the government and formal sector for work, but would instead embrace entrepreneurship and create job opportunities for themselves and others.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency shows that Pekalongan had a population of 263,190 population in 2001. -- Antara

;JP;ASA; ANPAa..r.. Across-S'pore-tourism Singapore to open promotion center JP/5/ACRO

Singapore to open promotion center

MEDAN, North Sumatra: Singapore will soon open a tourism promo tion center in the North Sumatra capital of Medan in order to attract more Indonesians to visit the city state, a Singaporean official said.

Ajit Singh, the Singapore Consul General to Indonesia for Riau province, said that the center would provide information on tourist attractions in Singapore.

Riau is the neighboring province to North Sumatra.

Ajit said that the tourism center would also serve as liaison office for Singapore investors wishing to invest in North Sumatra province.

"The tourism center can also be used by the Indonesian government to provide potential Singapore investors with information on business opportunities in North Sumatra," Ajit said here. -- Antara