Ezra Sihite – Following up on a presidential instruction issued last month on the handling of domestic security disturbances, a minister said on Friday that he had issued a circular mandating the establishment of regional security teams across the country.

"As coordinating minister, I have already sent circulars to heads of regions to form an integrated team in their respective regions," said Djoko Suyanto, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs.

The minister said he would leave the composition of the teams to regional heads to decide, since the nature of the security environment varied from region to region.

The teams would give primary command to local authorities in the region and would coordinate with police and the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI).

Djoko said the circulars were sent last weekend and added that next week, a team from his ministry would tour the regions to see that the instructions were being implemented. "The instruction was only circulated last week, we certainly need to socialize it," Djoko said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Jan. 28 issued an executive order allowing for closer cooperation between TNI, police and local officials to prevent and manage communal conflicts. It was followed briefly thereafter by an agreement between TNI and police officials that allows military personnel to deploy to conflict-prone areas without the consent of police or civilian authorities.

The agreement between TNI and police reportedly allows military personnel deployed for internal security purposes to act independently of civilian authority, giving rise to worries that it could roll back more than a decade of reforms to the military aimed at bringing it under civilian control.

Yudhoyono has defended the executive order as a tool for addressing the series of social conflicts and communal violence that has plagued the country. The government has been criticized for failing to properly handle security in several such incidents.