Deserters worsen Maluku conflict

Deserters worsen Maluku conflict

JAKARTA: Nineteen police officers in Maluku who were once
declared deserters are still at large and may have played a role
in past instances of communal unrest in the province, National
Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar disclosed here Wednesday.

"We are still trying to find them. When they are found, they
will face severe measures," he said at a hearing with the House
of Representatives' Commission I.

Bachtiar said he had issued an instruction that the deserters
must be found and subjected to the force's rules of discipline.
The more so because they were possibly involved in the sectarian
conflict in Maluku.

Bachtiar had told a previous hearing, the National Police were
grossly overburdened when one considered the ratio between the
force's manpopwer strength and the country's population.

In Malaysia, there was one police officer for every 300
citizens, in Singapore the ratio was 1 to 250. But in Indonesia,
one policeman was supposed to serve 1,000 people.

To overcome the problem, there was no other way except to
increase the National Police's manpower strength to a level
approaching the ideal ratio, he said.

The National Police had set a target of reaching a ratio of
1:750 by 2004, he added. -- Antara