Women not ready to assume military command posts

JAKARTA (JP): Navy chief Adm. Arief Kushariadi said female naval officers were not quite ready yet to assume the highest ranking position in the navy.

"Ha..ha... They're not quite there yet. We'll have to see because there are various ranks you have to go through," replied the admiral when asked if a woman could take his post.

Arief was speaking in Surabaya, East Java, yesterday after attending a graduation ceremony of recently trained officers.

While no woman has been commander of either the Army, Navy, Air Force or Police Force, Arief maintained that gender equality was already an established daily practice in the Armed Forces.

"On the field it's already in practice," he remarked adding that officers would be placed in accordance to ability and demand.

Nevertheless, he conceded that female officers in the Navy were not posted to front-line positions, but stationed only on auxiliary ships.

"Many of them are on auxiliary ships, not battleships," Arief said as quoted by Antara.

Auxiliary ships include tankers and hospital ships.

When asked the rank of the highest female officer, Arief said it was colonel.

Presently women are also not accepted into the Naval Academy. Arief said the first batch of female cadets would be accepted in 1999, one year later than originally intended.

"It had to be delayed because we had trouble with the construction of accommodations (for female cadets) which won't be completed before 1999," Arief explained.

For the first enrollment in 1999, the Naval Academy would allot 10 percent of its class of 250 to women.

Arief said women would have to undergo the same rigorous academy training as their male colleagues. The only difference, he said, would be in the actual weight they had to carry.

"For example, during a running exercise a male cadet would have to carry 13 kilograms of equipment, but for a women just 10. Also in the obstacle course, the men would have to pass 13 obstacles while women only nine," he remarked. (mds)