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SBY's in-law named Kopassus chief
PRAMONO EDHI WIBOWO: (JP/P
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PRAMONO EDHI WIBOWO: (JP/P.J. Leo)
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's brother-in-law Brig. Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo has been promoted to chief of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) as part of the latest reshuffle within the Indonesian Military (TNI).
Edhie, brother of First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, will replace Maj. Gen. Sunarko, who will take over from Maj. Gen. Supiadin Yusuf as the Iskandar Muda Military commander overseeing Aceh.
Supiadin will move to the TNI headquarters as the operational assistant to the TNI chief.
TNI chief Gen. Djoko Santoso signed the first major reshuffle of the year on May 29, although it was not announced until Wednesday.
Edhie, who graduated from the Military Academy in 1979, was promoted after having served as Central Java's Diponegoro Military Command chief of staff since September last year.
Before that, he was deputy chief of the Kopassus elite force for about two years.
The Kopassus top job has often served as a stepping stone to a more strategic assignments, including the Jakarta Military Command post.
Many noted Edhie's promising career when he served as an adjutant to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, whom Yudhoyono defeated in the 2004 election.
TNI chief of general affairs Lt. Gen. Erwin Sudjono is another relative of the First Family who holds a strategic post in the armed forces. Erwin is Ani's brother-in-law.
The latest reshuffle affected 131 officers, including Maj. Gen. Hotmangaradja Pandjaitan, who will replace Maj. Gen. G.R. Situmeang as the Udayana Military commander overseeing Bali and Nusa Tenggara.
Hotmangaradja is the son of national hero D.I. Pandjaitan, who was among the seven Army generals slain in an abortive coup attempt blamed on the communists in September 1965.
Situmeang, who moved to Bali last December, will become Army inspector general, replacing Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon, who is retiring.
