RI, U.S. armies hold joint exercise

RI, U.S. armies hold joint exercise

JAKARTA: Fifty Indonesian Army engineers have been involved in
a month-long joint exercise with nine special U.S. army personnel
in Bogor, West Java, Antara reported yesterday.

The exercise, which began on Feb. 9 and is scheduled to end
tomorrow, has been testing demolition capabilities including the
destruction of tanks/armored personnel carriers, plantations,
buildings and obstacles, the news agency quoted a statement from
the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) information center as saying.

The exercise also covered defensive acts such as creating tank
obstacles with explosives, destroying bridges and halting convoy
and troop movements, it said.

Maj. Gen. Suadi Marasabessi, the Army chief of staff's
assistant for operations, and Brig. Gen. Koenwirhadi, director of
the Indonesian Army's engineers division, inspected the personnel
and equipment involved in the exercise yesterday.

The exercise, code-named Balance Iron 98-7, involved personnel
from the engineers division and the Army Strategic Reserves
Command (Kostrad), the Presidential Security Guard, Jakarta
Military Command's engineers division, the Army's Combat Exercise
Center (Puslatpur), seven men from the U.S. Army Special Forces
and two others from the U.S. Marine Corps.