Jakarta, NU Online
The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) Commander Marshal Djoko Suyanto said Indonesia would send elite troops of the TNI’s three services to Lebanon in an effort to help maintain peace in the war-torn country.
He said that the sending of the troops to Lebanon was not for pleasure but for helping maintain peace, apart from for increasing the combat capability of TNI’s personnel and preparing the readiness of its main weapons system (Alutsista).
<>"TNI has limited tactical and combat equipment so that it needs to be supported with sufficient Alutsista," he told Antara in Jakarta on Thursday in response to the fact that high budget would be needed to send troops to Lebanon.He said that for 2007, TNI had obtained budget allocations for the purchase of 32 armoured vehicles to reinforce infantry battalions. But because of the limited number of existing armoured vehicles and the need to support the troops to Lebanon this year, the plan to purchase the vehicles would be carried out this year, or earlier than scheduled.
The dispatch of the elite troops to Lebanon was also intended to increase the combat capability of the TNI personnel that had been built and fostered so far through various exercises, he said.
"So, the dispatch of the troops to Lebanon is not for pleasure, let alone for fashion, but for increasing the readiness of the weapon system and combat capability of TNI’s personnel," Djoko said.
Earlier, Defense Planning Director General of the Defense Ministry Rear Admiral Yuwendi said Rp300 billion would be needed to finance the logistics and the sending of troops to Lebanon.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darusslam had agreed to send elite troops to Lebanon for a peacekeeping mission under the United Nations mandate.
In the face of the military dispatch, the TNI prepared 850 elite personnel consisting of four companies of the Army’s Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), one company of marine elite forces and one company of Air Force’ elite troops. (ant/dar)
