RI lines up with Australians in war game
RI lines up with Australians in war game
SYDNEY (Reuter): Indonesian troops for the first time have joined a major military exercise on Australian soil, and yesterday were "fighting" alongside local soldiers to retake a tiny outback town from a mock invading force.
About 130 Indonesian paratroopers and 290 Australian troops parachuted into the town of Wyndham early on Thursday, retaking its airstrip before advancing together into the remote settlement, about 3,000 km (1,900 miles) northwest of Sydney.
"They are trying to retake the town from the 'Orangeland' (enemy) forces," Australian army spokesman Col. Andrew Reynolds said by telephone from the war-games command center at an airforce base in northern Australia.
"They are working their way towards clearing the town of Orangelanders as we speak," he told Reuters yesterday morning, adding that all troops were armed with blank ammunition.
About 17,000 troops from eight nations are scheduled to take part in the four-week exercise, which began on Aug. 1.
Codenamed Kangaroo 95, the exercise is based on Australia's chief military threat -- a low-level invasion from the direction of Asia. But it is also designed to strengthen regional military cooperation as part of the country's effort to engage Asia.
Indonesia was until recent times at the top of the Australian military's list of potential threats.
"Exercising with our neighbors is very important," said Defense Science and Personnel Minister Gary Punch, referring to the Indonesian military's participation this year.
"It increases the professionalism of both sides of course, but it increases the understanding and the affinity between the participant countries and that's very important...."
Troops from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Britain and Canada are taking part in Kangaroo 95 across four million square km (1.5 million square miles) of Australia's sparsely populated northern outback.
Indonesia's participation comes at a time when ties between Canberra and Jakarta have been tested by a series of events that threatened to undermine relations painfully built over the years.
In July Indonesia withdrew its ambassador-designate to Australia, retired Lt. Gen. Herman Mantiri, due to controversy in Australia over the appointment.
Australia had called for Mantiri to apologize for comments he made in support of the military action in Dili, capital of East Timor, in 1991. Indonesia refused to comply.
The post of Indonesian ambassador to Canberra remains empty.
Indonesia's participation in Kangaroo 95 has drawn small protests in Australia by supporters of East Timorese independence. In one protest last week, an Indonesian flag was burnt, prompting a diplomatic protest from Jakarta.