U.S. to train Indonesian police
U.S. to train Indonesian police
HONG KONG: U.S. security experts are training, funding and
arming a crack squad of specially screened Indonesian police to
lead the country's fight against terrorism, a report seen here
Wednesday said.
When operational by 2005, the team of 400 officers, called
Detachment 88, will be able to respond to everything from bomb
scares to hostage crises to armed assaults, the Far Eastern
Economic Review reports in its Nov. 13 edition out Thursday.
Already three 10-man police investigation teams, three eight-
man tactical response units and three five-man bomb squads have
graduated from the US State Department-run program, the report
says.
"The U.S. expects that the new force ... will significantly
strengthen the police's ability to shoulder most of the burden in
the war against terrorism in Indonesia," the report says.
Citing Washington officials, it says US$16 million has already
been spent on equipping the program with "state-of-the-art
communications equipment, night-vision gear, technical support
and weaponry, including Heckler and Koch MP5 sub-machine guns and
Remington 700 sniper rifles".
Helicopters and C130 troop-transport planes could also be on
the supply list, it said, quoting a senior U.S. official.
As well as training by the State Department's diplomatic
security service, the program has also received input from
retired FBI, CIA and Secret Service agents.
The program is hoped to build on Indonesian police successes
in capturing suspects in the 2002 Bali bombs and the August
Jakarta Marriott Hotel bomb.
In a move aimed as much at keeping its own image clean,
Washington is concentrating on training police officers and not
soldiers as Congress views Indonesia's military as tainted by a
1991 mayhem in East Timor, the report adds.
As a result, recruits will be vetted for clean human rights
records and to prevent officers who served in the East Timor
campaign from signing up.
The article, however, quotes Western military expert warnings
that Detachment 88 may not be as effective as hoped.
"They really aren't yet capable of doing high-level tasks," it
quotes one as saying, adding experts believe it will be years
before the squad can match the antiterror skills of the
military's 4,500-strong special forces.