Only six battalions situated in East Timor

DILI, East Timor (JP): The Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) denied an Australian press report yesterday that it deploys 15 combat battalions to suppress low-level separatist rebellion.

Maj. Gen. Adang Ruchiatna, Commander of the Udayana Military Command which oversees security in Bali, Nusa Tenggara and East Timor, said that ABRI only has six battalions here.

Adang was responding to an Aug. 26 report in the Sydney Morning Herald that ABRI has 15 combat battalions to fight remnants of the poorly armed Fretelin separatists. ABRI estimates the rebels number about 200 with only 100 rifles.

Adang made the comment after installing Col. Inf. Kiki Syahnakri as the new East Timor military commander, replacing Col. Jhonny J. Lumintang.

Adang declined to say how many of the six battalions are combat oriented and how many are territorial, which focus on social services such as roadbuilding.

"It is not true that two ABRI personnel have been killed by the rebels," Adang told The Jakarta Post, adding that the report was only part of Fretelin's propaganda to discredit Indonesia.

The new commander, Col. Kiki Syahnakri was formerly assistant commander to the East Timor Military Command. Lumintang has assumed his new post as Commander of Infantry Brigade in Cilodong, West Java.(yac/02)