Rescue team yet to find missing soldiers

Nani Farida and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Surabaya

More than 24 hours after eight elite soldiers fell from a helicopter during a stunt rehearsal in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam on Saturday, the search and rescue (SAR) team has discovered only a helmet and wallet believed to belong to one of the missing troops.

"We began the search at 6 a.m. with the deployment of 40 marines and police Mobile Brigade personnel, but we have yet to find them," Aceh military spokesman Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki said on Sunday.

The eight Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers were declared missing after falling from a helicopter into the water off Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, on Saturday. They were conducting a final rehearsal for a stunt marking the 58th anniversary of the Indonesian Military (TNI) when disaster struck.

The troops fell into the sea after the harness they were suspended from was cut for safety reasons after the helicopter became unstable in high wind. They are feared dead as they were tied to one another and fell some 500 feet to 600 feet into the sea.

The eight have been identified as Second Sgt. Maksum, Second Pvt. Nainggolan, Chief Pvt. Sigit, Chief Pvt. Avianto, First Sgt. Slamet Budiono, Chief Pvt. Choirul Anam, Chief Pvt. M. Dodi Suhendro and Chief Pvt. Sugiono. They are members of the Kopassus antiterror unit.

A Kopassus officer said the incident was the worst the unit had ever experienced in terms of loss of life.

The incident marred the TNI's anniversary celebrations in Aceh on Sunday. None of the traditional attractions were staged during the celebration. Government and military offices lowered the national flag to half-staff.

Aceh martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya voiced his sense of loss over the accident. "We are in mourning. All the exercises followed the correct procedures. It was an accident," Endang said.

Meanwhile in Surabaya, Kopassus Commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto M. stated that the decision to cut the harness, which led to the fatal accident, was in line with the procedures. However, military headquarters had sent a team to investigate the accident.

"It (the cutting of the harness) followed the procedures. If there had been enough time, the soldiers would have cut the harness themselves," he told reporters after attending the Surabaya celebration marking the TNI anniversary.

He denied speculation that the TNI was more interested in saving the helicopter than the soldiers.

Although Sriyanto did not blame the decision to cut the harness as the cause of the accident, he said the Army would investigate the incident.

The investigation would determine whether the decision to cut the harness was correct, he added.

Sriyanto acknowledged that the elite soldiers did not carry normal life-saving equipment, such as life-vests.

He said the stunt being performed -- the STABO maneuver -- greatly depended on the weather conditions, the pilot and the aircraft.

He assumed that the eight soldiers had died because they could not swim as they had been tied to one another.

His fellow TNI leaders also expressed their regret over the accident.

Lt. Gen. Djamari Chaniago, TNI chief of general affairs, said that soldiers nationwide wanted to commemorate the TNI's anniversary, but "in an operations area, such as Aceh, crushing the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should be the priority rather than celebrating the anniversary with a lavish ceremony."

TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said that TNI Headquarters had sent a team to investigate the accident. The team was led by Maj. Gen. Dadi Susanto, an intelligence assistant to the TNI's chief of general affairs. Dadi's team would conduct a parallel investigation with that being conducted by the Army team.

To maintain the soldiers' morale, Kopassus Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Syaiful Rizal visited the province early on Sunday morning.

More than 35,000 troops have been deployed to Aceh, with 2,000 are of these being from Kopassus.