Riot alert centers to be set up

Riot alert centers to be set up

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto reiterated yesterday the need
to set up "alert command centers" to monitor the entire country
and nip unrest in the bud.

Soeharto said the centers would be the first of their kind in
Indonesia and would be stationed at Kodim (district military
commands). They would monitor situations and rumors that could
incite social unrest and report them to the relevant authorities.

"The centers will forward information to the concerned
authorities, who will then act on them," Soeharto was quoted as
saying by Sudomo, head of the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA), who
met with him yesterday. The council advises the President on
policy matters.

Soeharto also said the centers should be ready to receive all
kinds of reports from the people. No specific establishment date
was mentioned.

Creation of the centers was first announced by President
Soeharto last Friday when receiving managers of cooperatives
owned by Islamic boarding schools (pesantren).

Soeharto said such the centers were necessary to prevent
further riots, which had occurred regularly in the past two
years.

According to Sudomo, the President disliked having to
establish the centers. "I know that he doesn't like to set up new
bodies like this," Sudomo said.

Sudomo said since it would not be an "operational" body, the
centers could not be said to be taking the role of an internal
security agency, the Operation Command for Law and Order
Restoration (Kopkamtib), which is now defunct.

Sudomo was formerly chief of the Kopkamtib, dissolved in 1989
to make way for a more lenient Bakorstanas, or the Agency for the
Coordination of Support for the Development of National
Stability.

He said the agency, to be called the "Control Center for
Social Unrest" at the provincial level and led by the governor,
would be sufficient to handle local problems and issues.

Sudomo acknowledged the widening social gap was a factor in
recent outbreaks of violence around the country.

The violence, however, had been incited by "some dissidents
and subversive groups from the left and right extremes seeking to
discredit and undermine the government." The groups, which Sudomo
did not identify, had sought to make people believe the
government could no longer be trusted or relied upon.

"They intend to topple the government," said Sudomo, a
retired admiral.

He said certain subversive elements had taken advantage of a
localized conflict in the recent Tasikmalaya riot and aggravated
the situation.

But Sudomo said the riots had been "sporadic" and would not
affect the country's stability. He later called on fellow senior
government officials and observers to avoid making "naive"
comments about the country's current political situation.

In October, thousands of Moslems in the small East Java town
of Situbondo took to the streets and burned dozens of churches as
well as a Buddhist temple and other public facilities. Five
people were killed.

On Dec. 26, thousands of Moslems went on a rampage in
Tasikmalaya, West Java over police mistreatment of three Moslem
teachers. Four people died and over 100 buildings were burned and
damaged.

Earlier this month unrest erupted in West Kalimantan when a
mob of 5,000 Dayak tribesmen, the local indigenous ethnic group,
burned and looted scores of homes and stores belonging to
settlers who had migrated from the Indonesian island of Madura,
north of Java. (imn/08)

Disparity -- Page 2