Military to pull out troops from Freeport

The government will withdraw non-organic troops from PT Freeport Indonesia?s mining areas in Timika in Papua in phased manner, the Koran Tempo newspaper reported in its Wednesday.

National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said the soldiers will be replaced by the police?s elite Mobile Brigade troops.

Sutanto told reporters on Tuesday that the dispatch of two companies of Mobil Brigade troops from Makassar to Papua last week was not meant to replace police personnel but to take over the job of providing security to Freeport from the Indonesian Military (TNI).

?Later, TNI will withdraw its troops from there in phases,? Sutanto said.

This was confirmed by the TNI Headquarters. The military said it has been planning to withdraw its personnel from Freeport since early March.

According to TNI?s head of general information agency Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki, the military has already consulted the police, Freeport and the local administration about this.

Yani said the withdrawal will nothing to do with the reports on the presence of military at Freeport in the media. He said that the police must provide security to Freeport.

?In fact, TNI wants to hand over the authority to police,? Yani told the Tempo on Tuesday.

As far as the total number of troops to be withdrawn is concerned, Yani said it will depend on the situation there. The main problem faced in pulling out troops from Freeport is transportation. There will not be always ships available to withdraw troops from Papua. (*)