Wiranto joins Army Special Force

JAKARTA (JP): The newly promoted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Wiranto became an honorary member of the Army Special Force (Kopassus) after completing the force's basic training yesterday.

The four-star general had gone through 23 military exercises before he was awarded a brevet, wing, Kopassus uniform, a broad- blade knife and a Kopassus red beret by Special Force Commandant General Maj. Gen. Prabowo Subianto.

The exercises, including shooting, booby traps, rappelling and survival games, lasted for about half an hour.

Accompanying Wiranto in the exercises were Prabowo, Army Inspector General Maj. Gen. Muzani Syukur, the Jakarta Regional Military Chief Maj. Gen. Sutiyoso, the Wirabuana Regional Military Command Chief Maj. Gen. Agum Gumelar and Deputy Jakarta Regional Military Chief Brig. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoedin.

Wiranto had taken it on himself to go through the force's basic training program.

"I want to get close to you all (Kopassus personnel) and feel your breath and smell your body odor," Wiranto told about 600 personnel at Kopassus' Cijantung headquarters.

"Therefore, I can feel and listen to your hardships as well as your happiness," he said.

He said that officers and their soldiers were inseparable elements in the military's structure.

"There will be no generals or commandants without your (the soldiers') presence. On the contrary, you'll be described as a group of bandits without leaders," he said.

He said that close relationships between officers and soldiers were likely to result in soldier-oriented rather than top-down policies and programs.

Wiranto was appointed Army chief last month, replacing Gen. R. Hartono who had reached the mandatory age for retirement last year before President Soeharto extended his commission for another year.

Hartono has been given a cabinet post as the minister of information, replacing Harmoko who took up the new portfolio of state minister of special assignments.

On Wiranto's basic training workout, Kopassus Commandant General Maj. Gen. Prabowo Subianto said that all Special Force personnel would be proud of Wiranto's achievement.

"He is not only an Army chief of staff but also a professional soldier. It's a rare sight, a high-ranking official willing to crawl under heavy netting and climb up and down the mountainside while carrying a heavy knapsack full of food and ammunition," he told reporters after the exercises ended. (imn)