Jakarta to help Cambodian military

Jakarta to help Cambodian military

PHNOM PENH (Reuter): Indonesia is willing to help Cambodia restructure its military and has offered to provide Phnom Penh with non-lethal military aid, visiting Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said yesterday.

"We have some experience in unifying various units of troops of fighting forces after our revolution in 1950," Alatas said at a news conference marking the end of an official three-day visit.

He said Cambodia might also benefit from the Indonesian army's experience in providing civic aid.

"Our army is very well-known for cooperating with local villagers in building bridges, in building roads, in teaching them the right methods of farming and planting.

"We are willing to share that experience with Cambodia if Cambodia wishes," Alatas said.

He earlier pledged about $1 million worth of non-lethal military aid comprising uniforms, boots and a small patrol boat. Indonesia has also trained a Cambodian special forces battalion in counter-insurgency warfare.

"They've (special forces) been back about one month now after being trained for six months in Indonesia," Cambodian military spokesman Col. Chum Sambath told Reuters yesterday.

With more than 120,000 men and women under arms, one of the biggest problems facing the Cambodian military is its peacetime future.

The outlawed Khmer Rouge guerrilla faction, responsible for the deaths of one million Cambodians during its 1970s reign of terror, continues to wage a low-level insurgency, mostly in remote areas in the country's northwest.