As Indonesian Elite Force Apparoaches Somalia

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia has dispatched an elite military force to Somalia to rescue 20 Indonesian sailors who were hijacked by Somalian pirates together with their ship a month ago.

Despite a media blitz in Jakarta, the Indonesian government had actually to cancel the hard option as the Kopassus and the Korp Marinir units were en route to the site where MV Sinar Kudus was held by Somali pirates.

The force dispatched numbers to 401 personnel consisting of a combined unit of Kopassus and Korps Marinir (Marine Corps). The media had apparently been taken by surprise by what had been disclosed by Air Marshall (Rtd.) Djoko Suyanto, the Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security.

This story has not been made public by the government until Friday. There are two considerations that may have become the underlying reasons for Djoko Suyanto, former Indonesian Defense Force (TNI) Commander, to open the fact to public through media.

First, public opinion has cornered the government in the people’s eyes as being weak and slow-moving. Second, the 3.5 million US dollars ransom money has actually been in the process of delivery to the pirates as the condition for the release of the sailors.

"The directive from the President was that the safety of the seamen is the priority," said Suyanto, saying that the government was not as meek as what had been depicted by some quarters in the public through media.

Suyanto said the government was formally notified of the case by afternoon March 17, 2011, less than 24 hours after the vessel was taken over by the pirates. After a five-day preparation, on March 23, 2011, TNI sent off two naval ships to Somali waters through Colombo, Sri Lanka.

On March 30, 2011, hundred personnel of the two TNI elite units that had been dispatched by air arrived at Colombo and boarded the two Indonesian naval ships which then charged at full speed going towards Somalia that day.

"We sent our boys by air to Colombo to keep them fresh," Suyanto said.

TNI had calculated that the two warships would approach the operation zone at the Somali waters by April 5, 2011. But suddenly the pirates, which had used MV Sinar Kudus as their command ship for directing hijacking operations on other vessels, moved it to berth on a ground position not anymore on the high seas on April 2, 2011.