SE Sulawesi to recruit 11,000 civilian militia

JAKARTA (JP): Southeast Sulawesi's provincial government is planning to recruit 11,661 trained civilian militiamen to help oversee the June 7 general election in the province.

"The personnel will be recruited from the existing civilian guards (known locally as Hansip-Limas) and people's guards (known as Kamra-Wanra), who are scattered throughout the province's 1,023 villages in 80 subdistricts," the head of the Civilian Guards Headquarters, Rasyid Hamzah, said here on Friday.

The recruitment of the militiamen will be subject to rigid screening, particularly in terms of physical fitness and health, Rasyid was quoted by Antara as saying.

According to Rasyid, the tight screening was aimed at ensuring candidates would be able to undergo intensive military training.

Rasyid disclosed that the militiamen, known locally as Rakyat Terlatih or Ratih, would be deployed at polling stations.

He explained that each of the province's five districts would select 150 militiamen from its Kamra-Wanra corps and additional men from the Hansip-Limas.

"The computation of the number of Ratih members is based on the total number of voters, which is estimated to reach between 770,000 and 800,000 out of the province's population of 1.5 million," he said.

Southeast Sulawesi is following Jakarta's lead in proceeding with the controversial plan to establish a civilian militia. Earlier this week, the Jakarta Military Command began recruiting 12,000 people for its militia.

The recruitment, which began on Jan. 11 and will last until March 12, is targeting male Indonesians between the ages of 18 and 45 who have at least junior high school diplomas.

Training for the militia will begin on Feb. 1 at 14 Armed Forces (ABRI) training centers across the capital, including the command's main regimental headquarters in Condet, East Jakarta; the health training center in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta; and the traffic training center in Serpong, Tangerang.

The training of personnel in Jakarta will last for half a month. During the training each member will receive Rp 100,000, which will be increased to Rp 200,000 per month when the members are deployed.

The plan to establish the militia was introduced by Minister of Defense and Security/ABRI Commander Gen. Wiranto late last year. (swe)