Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, 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.