So, TNI is ready to help. We are ready to be deployed in case we are needed so long as there is a request for it from the policeJakarta (ANTARA News) - The Defense Forces (TNI) is ready to help the police in anticipation of conflicts stirred by religious, ethnic, racial or group differences (SARA), its spokesman, Colonel Minulyo Suprapto, said here on Wednesday.
He said TNI forces in regions especially in West Java and Central Java were ready to help assure security and anticipate possible SARA conflicts which could turn anarchic. "We are prepared and ready to be deployed if needed," he said.
He said the TNI`s involvement in the domestic security is regulated in Law Number 34 of 2004 on TNI. Under the law TNI could be involved upon request from the police, he said.
"So, TNI is ready to help. We are ready to be deployed in case we are needed so long as there is a request for it from the police," he said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono through the coordinating minister for political, security and legal affairs, Djoko Suyanto, had ordered the regional governments and the police not to hesitate to ask for help from TNI to deal with SARA riotings.
"TNI has a standard operating procedure and so there is no need for people to be afraid that TNI might violate human rights," he said.
A mob attacked minority Ahmadiyah Islamic sect members in Cikeusik, Pandeglang, Banten, on Sunday leaving three people dead and ten others wounded.
Two churches meanwhile had been burned and another one vandalized following a rioting stirred by dissatisfaction over a court`s sentence on a defendant in blasphemy case.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
