REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) are mulling the feasibility of putting soldiers on board ships to ensure their safety as they sail through the piracy-prone waters from Malaysia to the Philippines.
"That is what we wish to do. We can put four to five soldiers on one ship," TNI commander General Gatot Nurmantyo said here on Monday after attending a coordination meeting of the crisis center for securing hostages's release.
Since March this year, there have been four incidents of Indonesian seamen being abducted in the waters along the Indonesia-Philippines border.
The latest incident was reported on Sunday by the owner of a Malaysian fishing ship that was hijacked by an armed group in the waters around Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysia, in which three Indonesian citizens working on the ship were taken hostage.
To prevent recurrence of such incidents, General Nurmantyo has urged for defense cooperation among Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia in the form of organizing a joint patrol, stationing soldiers on board ships and issuing a permit for military operations by Indonesian forces to free the three Indonesian citizens.
He assured that the Philippine government has given a positive signal for such cooperation, based on the results of talks between the two countries' ministers of defense in June. However, till date, no decision had been officially put in a written form.
"There has been a green light for it but let the Minister of Defense deal with it," he noted.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi observed earlier that the ministers of defense of the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia would soon hold a meeting in Kuala Lumpur to discuss ways to secure the release of the three Indonesian citizens, believed to have been abducted by Abu Sayyaf group.
"Tomorrow, the Minister of Defense will meet with his counterparts from the Philippines and Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur," she informed.
She stressed that the meeting among Indonesian defense minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, Philippine defense minister Delfin Lorenzana and Malaysian defense minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein must come up with concrete measures that could be implemented to strengthen defense cooperation among the three countries.
Indonesia and the Philippines have had the 1975 Border Patrol Agreement that covers coordinated cooperation, joint patrol and coordinated patrol.
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