Binjai airborne battalion to be revived

Binjai airborne battalion to be revived

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu made clear on Friday that he would revive the Airborne 100/PS Battalion in Binjai, some 30 kilometers north of Medan.

The Army unit has been suspended since an attack by a number of its members on a police station and the headquarters of the police's Mobile Brigade in Binjai at the end of September. The attack claimed the lives of at least four people, including two civilians.

Ryamizard made the statement during a visit to the airborne unit's headquarters in Namu Sira-Sira subdistrict to inspect the unit's arms, which have been kept in storage since the attack.

Accompanying Ryamizard during the visit were North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin, Brig. Gen. Tri Tamtomo, the new chief of the Bukit Barisan Military Command overseeing North and West Sumatra and Riau, and his predecessor Maj. Gen. Idris Gassing.

The attack occurred after the Binjai Police refused to release a drug trafficker who was backed by several members of the airborne battalion.

Tamtomo officially took over the Bukit Barisan Military Command from Gassing during a military ceremony in the city on Thursday. Gassing has been assigned to Army Headquarters in Jakarta.

In the aftermath of the attack on the police stations, Ryamizard suspended all of the airborne unit's operations and replaced all of the commanders who were seen as being partly responsible for the incident.

But he said that if the suspension continued for too long a time it could have a negative impact on the regional military command.

"We will set up a new force to revive the battalion in the near future. The military command will be missing an elite unit for a long time if this battalion is not revived," he said.

He said reviving the battalion would require a great deal of preparation, including the selection of servicemen to be assigned to the battalion.

Former members of the battalion have been reassigned to military units in three other provinces.