Indonesian Navy and Marine Corps to be reorganized

JAKARTA (JP): Marine Corps chief Maj. Gen. Harry Triono confirmed on Wednesday the plan to reorganize the Indonesian Navy and the Marine Corps to improve their performances.

He said the Navy would add one more fleet in addition to the existing two fleets, each of which will be based in Belawan (North Sumatra) for the western region, Surabaya (East Java) for the central region and Makassar (South Sulawesi) for the eastern region.

"In the future, we will have western, central and eastern fleets. The reorganization is expected to help ease the burden on the Navy in maintaining the country's sovereignty over its large waters," Harry told reporters after welcoming Lt. Gen. Frank Libutti, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps for the Asia-Pacific region at the Marine Corps headquarters in Cilandak, South Jakarta.

He declined to reveal the funds needed to revamp the Navy's organization and replace its outdated military equipment, especially its arsenal and warships, but said that it would depend on the country's economic growth in years to come.

"The reorganization will continue with the recovery of our economy in the upcoming years," he said.

Harry added that the reorganization was expected to be completed before 2005.

He said that the Marine Corps would also be regrouped into two large divisions, starting from Nov. 15, 2000.

"The Marine Corps needs around 10,000 new personnel to expand its two divisions that will be based in Teluk Ratai, Lampung and Surabaya," he said, while citing that there are 13,000 Marine corps personnel at present.

During the meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Harry called on the U.S. government to lift its embargo on military training and assistance to Indonesia as part of efforts to resume bilateral cooperation between the two countries' Navies.

"The U.S. government should review its decision on the embargo on military assistance because it has slowed down the existing joint exercises between the two countries' Navies," he said.

He said that during his closed-door meeting with Libutti, he asked his guest to lobby the latter's government to lift the embargo.

"He (Libutti) pledged to discuss the matter with his government," he said.

Separately, Libutti said that he did not have the authority to lift the embargo because it was the policy of his government.

"I am not in a position to make comments on this because it is the Senate's policy, while I'm a commander on the field," he said.

He said that the two countries' Marine corps would continue to forge bilateral cooperation in terms of exchanging ideas and conducting joint exercises in the future.

"The cooperation between the two countries' Marine Corps will be enhanced in the future because of our mutual concern of the Asia-Pacific region," he said.

Asked on crucial issues in the Asia-Pacific region, Libutti said the United States was optimistic about the political situation in East Timor.

"East Timor has been in a good shape and the political situation is expected to improve in the future," he said.

He said the recent incident in Atambua that left three UN humanitarian workers dead was a tragedy and that it should be thoroughly dealt with.

"Any incident of that nature is indeed a tragedy. We hope that peace will be restored in that region," he said. (rms)