The military, working in conjunction with four cellular telecommunications providers, has launched a text message hotline that the public can use to send in complaints and reports.
Lt. Gen. Geerhan Lantara, the military’s chief inspector, said on Tuesday that the service, available at the number 1978, was part of the military’s efforts to tackle misconduct by armed forces personnel, following a series of high-profile criminal incidents involving servicemen.
“This system will be used to monitor the conduct of all soldiers who break any laws or regulations,” he said at a signing ceremony with representatives from the four cellular operators at the military headquarters in Jakarta.
“Our purpose is to open access to social control. Any problems [with soldiers] that occur outside the military and are reported to us by the public will be discussed and resolved appropriately,” Geerhan said.
He said that Adm. Agus Suhartono, the military chief of staff, was very concerned about incidents of misconduct by soldiers, and wanted a way to ensure that all complaints from the public would be acknowledged and addressed.
The cellular operators working with the military on the text service are Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata and Telkom.
The military has come under fire recently for a string of violent incidents involving soldiers. Most recently, a group of soldiers from an infantry battalion in South Jakarta forced their way into the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) headquarters on April 20 and assaulted and injured three people.
The incident reportedly stemmed from a traffic spat involving a soldier that the security guards from the PDI-P compound had tried to help resolve.
It came less than a month after Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commandos raided a jail in Yogyakarta’s Sleman district on March 23 and summarily executed four detainees who were suspected of killing a fellow Kopassus member.
The attack sparked a debate about the progress of military reforms and worries over the country’s state of lawlessness.
That raid came just weeks after an attack on a police station in South Sumatra’s Ogan Komering Ulu district on March 7 by a group of around 90 soldiers.
Six people were injured in that incident, which was sparked by the shooting death of a soldier by a police officer during a traffic stop in January.