Police personnel being trained for presidential guard

Police personnel being trained for presidential guard

JAKARTA (JP): The National Police announced on Monday that
some 200 police personnel had been undergoing training since last
month to become members of the newly established presidential
security guard.

Sr. Supt. Saleh Saaf, an officer at the information department
of the National Police Headquarters, said the training was part
of a plan to replace the old Presidential Security Guards
(Paspampres), which consisted of military members, with police
personnel as recommended by Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono
on June 1.

"About 100 of those personnel were recruited from the National
Police's Mobile Brigade corps (Brimob), while the rest were
selected from other police units," Saleh told reporters at his
office.

He declined to comment on whether members of Banser, a militia
under the supervision of the 30-million strong Nadhlatul Ulama
(NU) Muslim organization, were also recruited as members of the
new presidential guard.

President Abdurrahman Wahid is a former chairman of NU.

Saleh said the personnel were carefully selected because of
their important tasks of maintaining the safety of the country's
number-one figure.

"The recruited personnel are those who have very good physical
health, intellectual ability and are emotionally mature," he
said.

Saleh did not disclose the total number of personnel
recruited.

"We will continue recruiting personnel, but I don't know yet
whether the number of the new presidential guard members will be
the same as the current Paspampres personnel," he said.

The current presidential guard, which is located on Jl. Tanah
Abang II in Central Jakarta, has some 1,600 members. It consists
of troops from various units, such as the military police, the
Army's Special Force (Kopassus) and the Army's Strategic Reserves
Command (Kostrad).

It is divided into three groups: Group A to protect the
president, Group B to protect the vice president and Group C to
protect state guests.

Paspampres is now led by Brig. Gen. I Putu Sastra.

Serpong

National Police chief Gen. Rusdihardjo said on Thursday that
Paspampres would soon be dissolved and the duty would be handed
over to the police personnel.

The four-star general, however, did not disclose when the plan
would be carried out.

This shift of responsibility comes as part of the police's
separation from the Indonesian Military (TNI), which will take
effect in January 2001.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dadang Garnida said on
Thursday the change of duty could not be avoided since
militaristic attributes no longer suited the era of reform.

"We are facing an era of civil society today. Military deals
with national defense affairs, while the police are responsible
for the people's security matters, including to secure the
president and the vice president," he said after a gathering of
retired high-ranking police personnel here.

Saleh said several trainers from the old Paspampres had been
recruited to train the personnel.

"The training is taking place at the police's training and
education center (Pusdiklat) in Serpong, west of here," he said,
adding that the training was in line with international
standards.

"However, adjustments have been made, since our President has
a more liberal policy on presidential security matters," he said,
referring to Abdurrahman's penchant for relaxing presidential
protocol. (asa)