The Jakarta Post, January 05, 2006
New Poso command draws opposition
Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government's decision to establish a Security Operation Command (koopskam) to
investigate and curb the violence in Palu and Poso has sparked strong reactions from
local non-governmental organizations.
The Poso Center, an umbrella group of local NGOs, said the move was merely to
"protect certain parties believed to have played roles in creating conflict there."
Center coordinator Yusuf Lakaseng said the establishment of such a command would
create an image that Central Sulawesi was riven by communal conflicts, which could
later "pave the way for the government to launch a military-style operation".
"We urge the government to listen to our voice because all we need is the
establishment of a fact-finding team to investigate a series of violent incidents in Palu
and Poso, instead of setting up a Koopskam.
"We are talking here about the public distrust of security personnel. No local people
have come to the police and helped provide them with information," Yusuf told Antara
on Wednesday.
The NGOs also rejected a plan to redeploy troops and police personnel to Palu and
Poso, saying it would only worsen the situation. "I think what is needed is to launch a
professional intelligence operation," Yusuf said.
The Central Sulawesi command will be directly under the office of Coordinating
Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Adm. (ret) Widodo Adi Sutjipto.
It aims to uncover the masterminds behind a series of terror attacks that have plagued
Poso and Palu following a peace deal signed in 2001.
"The conflict in Palu, Poso and in other Central Sulawesi areas need special
measures," Widodo said after a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
on Wednesday.
The meeting, also attended by National Police chief Gen. Sutanto, Minister of Home
Affairs M. Ma'ruf and State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Syamsir Siregar,
discussed the plan.
A two-star police general, Insp. Gen. Paulus Purwoko, will lead the command, with
former Aceh's Lilawangsa military commander Brig. Gen. A.Y. Nasution serving as his
deputy.
Nasution is the current chief of the Army's Strategic Reserve Command's first division
based in Cilodong, West Java.
The command will have to complete its tasks within three months in the first phase.
Its term could be extended to another three months if deemed necessary.
The government has also set up a task force to probe Saturday's bomb attack on a
traditional market, which claimed 22 people lives and injured 56 others. The task force
will be commanded by a police officer, Brig. Gen. Wahono.
The government was trying to link the violent incidents in Palu and Poso with the
same actors involved in sporadic attacks in Maluku and Java island.
As part of the command's first operation, the government plans to send 1,100 police
reinforcements to Poso and Palu, along with an unspecified soldiers.
About 4,000 reinforcement police and soldiers were sent to restore order in Central
Sulawesi in 2005.
Earlier, the government set up a Poso Task Force as part of the implementation of
Presidential Decree No. 14/2005, which was issued weeks after a bomb attack
rocked a traditional market in the predominantly Christian town of Tentena in May
2004. Twenty-two people were killed in the incident, while dozens others were
wounded.
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