Navy, Air Force ready to secure Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): The Navy and Air Force are committed to providing full backup to the police and Army in securing the capital during next month's General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), senior officers said on Monday.

Interviewed by The Jakarta Post after a joint meeting at City Hall to discuss security around the General Session, the assistant to the main naval base commander for operational affairs, Col. Masruchan, and the assistant to the Air Force's operations commander, Col. Wardjoko, said their forces were prepared to support the police and Army in providing security in the capital.

"We're ready to deploy our combined troop of some 300 marines and sailors to back up the city's public order operations. They are our standby contingent, which can be deployed at any time.

"We are also preparing three battalions of some 1,500 marines to safeguard the MPR session," Masruchan said.

His counterpart from the Air Force, Col. Wardjoko, said: "We'll deploy our troops based on the request of the city police and the administration. We can, for example, dispatch helicopters to speed up the deployment of soldiers.

"Our field soldiers will also be deployed upon request. At the least, we will secure our own base and its surrounding areas."

The meeting on Monday was the second of five such meetings to discuss security during the MPR session. Also in attendance at the meeting were senior officers from the Jakarta Police, the Jakarta Military Command and top officials from the Jakarta administration.

According to the deputy governor for administrative affairs, Abdul Kahfi, the meetings are aimed at designing an integrated scheme to overcome public order and security problems in the city during the General Session.

"We can't solve the problems just by ourselves. We need back up from the police and the military," he told journalists during a break in the meeting.

"There are only about 800 public order officials in the city. They are definitely not enough to overcome the problems," he said.

Kahfi said participants at Monday's meeting also discussed their "targets", although he failed to explain what he meant by this.

Wardjoko said the discussions were also meant to set standard operational procedures for requesting the deployment of backup troops from the military.

"We already have such requests from the police. But since the city administration is in charge of public order operations, we first need to conceptualize the request procedure," he said.

Kahfi said all five mayors in the capital would be responsible for overseeing public order operations in their respective areas. "The mayors will coordinate with other institutions such as local police precincts and military districts.

"We already have priorities of what has to be done and which places need to be secured," he said, adding that markets and bus terminals were two examples of locations which had security priority. (nvn)