RI 'pencak silat' team to tour Europe

JAKARTA: A nine-member Indonesian pencak silat team will tour France, Switzerland and Belgium to promote the Indonesia-based martial arts worldwide.

The tour is scheduled to run from March 29 through April 6, with the entourage to carry out a demonstration of pencak silat in Paris, where it will be one of the 20 kinds of martial arts participating at the World Martial Arts Festival.

They will head to Switzerland on March 31 before taking part in the three-day Belgium Open.

"This is part of our moral support to those countries, especially in Europe, we have so far assisted in developing pencak silat as a martial art," Eddie Nalapraya, chairman of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association (IPSI), said at a meeting with National Sports Council (KONI) Chairman Agum Gumelar here on Tuesday. --JP