RI's climbers get hero's welcome

JAKARTA (JP): All three Indonesian climbers who succeeded in reaching Mount Everest's peak, along with 20 other members of the expedition team, arrived home safely yesterday evening, receiving a hero's welcome.

The three are the first Indonesians ever to make it to the top of Everest.

The 23-member expedition team was cheerfully welcomed at Halim Perdanakusuma military airbase by Maj. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, the commander of the elite army special forces who was assigned to oversee the climbing expedition.

The safe arrival of all team members proved that earlier news reports, saying that one of the Indonesian climbers was among four missing, were erroneous.

Army Corp. Asmujiono, one of the three who reached the peak from the mountain's southern side, was the one who planted the Indonesian flag.

Another three climbers who tried to reach the peak from a northern route were told to climb down following bad weather, despite the fact they were only 240 meters away from the top.

"We're grateful that we were ordered to climb down, otherwise we wouldn't be alive right now. But we were also disappointed that we couldn't reach the top," said Tarmudi, adding that after they went down the storm began to rage.

Prabowo said that his men would do better next time from the northern (Tibet) side. He said that he would not force his climbers and everything would depend on their ability and weather conditions.

Earlier, on April 26, three Indonesian climbers, Sgt. Misirin, Corp. Asmujiono and Lt. Iwan Setiawan reached the earth's highest point from the Nepalese side.

The climbers included 10 members of Army elite forces officers. (10)