Situbondo army chief replaced

SURABAYA (JP): Situbondo, the site of Oct. 10 religious violence where five people were left dead and dozens of churches damaged, has a new military chief.

Lt. Col. Imam Prawoto, chief of the military district of Situbondo, some 160 kilometers east of here, was hastily replaced yesterday by Lt. Col. Iswandi.

Only the previous day, Imam, still working, had invited about 80 local ulemas to a meeting where he explained the cause of the death of Akhmad Siddiq, one of the 54 people detained for involvement in the riots.

In Surabaya, commander of the Brawijaya regional military command Maj. Gen. Imam Utomo held a press conference on the transfer. He said he had been observing Imam Prawoto since the riots and had found reasons for justifying the latter's removal from the job.

"Over the past two months, I saw him getting more and more stressed out. He could only think of the 54 suspects and nothing else," Imam Utomo said.

"Every day, people asked him about the riot. That's why he became stressed out.

"If this situation went on, the task of safeguarding the general elections next year wouldn't proceed smoothly."

Imam Utomo, however, refused to say his subordinate was replaced as a direct consequence of the riot.

"It's not because he was considered to have failed to restore the situation in Situbondo," he said.

"The Armed Forces needs to also develop a community's social and political affairs. If a military leader is preoccupied with suspected rioters, then his job of developing the community will be hampered," he said.

He said the decision "was made in Jakarta".

Imam Prawoto will be posted at Army headquarters.

Imam Utomo said the Armed Forces would help repair four churches and three school buildings damaged in the violence. (25/swe)