Joe Leahy, Jakarta – President Suharto has warned his former military unit, the elite Strategic Reserve Command, to stay on alert to counter "anti-government" groups.
In an apparent warning to separatist elements and dissidents - his second in a week - the 75-year-old President said the military's duty was to protect national stability and be on the lookout for threats of all kinds.
"There are no countries anywhere in the world that would allow such groups freedom of movement, especially when their actions extend to taking up arms," he said in a speech read by army chief General Hartono.
"The armed forces' role is to guarantee the security and safety of the people," he said in the speech, which General Hartono read at the 36th-birthday celebrations of the Strategic Reserve Command, known as Kostrad.
The warning follows one last week in which Mr Suharto promised to "clobber" anyone who tried to unseat him by unconstitutional means.
"If the people want Suharto to step down, I'll say thank you. I'll accept the decision," he said during a visit to central Java on February 28.
"But if they do it by means other than through the MPR [the Upper House of parliament]... I'll clobber them because they are violating the constitution."
A wave of unrest has rocked Indonesia since October, including three large-scale religious riots in Java, riots in East Timor, racial killings in West Kalimantan and tribal wars in remote Irian Jaya.
Reports yesterday said at least six people had been killed in the Irian Jayan clashes.
Kostrad has played a key role in restoring calm to most of these areas. A former army minister, Lieutenant-General Ahmad Yani, formed the command in 1961 as a rapid reaction force capable of nipping internal unrest in the bud.
Mr Suharto, Kostrad's first commander, used the force in 1965 to quell an abortive so-called coup attempt blamed on the communist party and edge his way into power.
The force's loyalty is still seen as the key to the security of the elections and the President.
Authorities are preparing to bring to court 25 people on subversion charges over violent ethnic unrest since December on Borneo, according to Masfar Ismail, head of the Attorney-General's Office in West Kalimantan province.