RI`s navy to get another submarine: legislator

(ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Navy will soon get another submarine, Yusron Ihza Mahendra, deputy chairman of Commission I of the House of Representatives, said here on Sunday.

"The plan has already been discussed in a meeting between a House`s Commission I delegation and the government led by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Saturday evening," Mahendra told ANTARA.

The joint meeting was also attended among others by the coordinating minister for political, legal and security Affairs, the defense minister, the chief of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI), the National Police chief, the law and human rights minister, the deputy foreign affairs minister, and the chief of the Indonesian Intelligence Agency (BIN).

Among members of the House`s Commission I who attended the meeting were Yusron Ihza (Pioneer Star joint faction, concurrently the team`s chairman), Happy Bone Zulkarnaen (Golkar faction), Andreas Pareira ( Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle/PDIP), Joko Susilo (National Mandate Party/PAN), Shidiq Wahab (Democratic Party), as well as Chairman of the Commission I Theo L Sambuaga (Golkar Party).

The meeting also discussed the need to increase the defense budget, including a plan to increase the number of submarines, he said.

The discussed issues on the Ambalat block conflict involving Indonesia and Malaysia.
"And the Indonesian Government has given support to our delegation which has made diplomatic contacts in Kuala Lumpur," he said.

"The President on behalf of the Indonesian government has expressed full support to the steps taken by the House`s Commission I delegation to go to Malaysia in connection with the Ambalat issue," he said.

"The Commission I in the meeting emphasized the need to rebuild the domestic defense industry, and the proposal was welcomed by the President," Yusron Ihza Mahendra said.(*)

Australians held in Indonesia free next week

AFP -- Five Australians held for nine months for illegally entering Indonesia's sensitive Papua province will return home as early as next week after the charges were dismissed, a lawyer said Thursday.

Defence lawyer Efrem Fangoihoy said the supreme court had rejected a prosecution appeal against their acquittal in March, which followed their initial convictions and sentencing for up to three years' jail in January.

"The supreme court refused the final appeal by prosecutors in Merauke yesterday. So we'll follow the high court's decision in March in which it accepted our appeal," he said.

"They have contacted me from Merauke and are grateful about this. They are in good health."

He said the so-called "Merauke Five" would be able to return to Australia as soon as the court's ruling is officially published, probably next week.

The Australians - pilot William Scott-Bloxam and his wife, Vera, plus Hubert Hufer, Karen Burke and Keith Ronald Mortimer - had flown to Papua from Horn island off northeastern Australia on a sightseeing trip in September.

They had not obtained visas or permission to fly through Indonesian airspace but received verbal clearance to land their small plane from the control tower at Merauke district airport.

They were briefly held in Merauke prison after their initial convictions but have spent most of the past nine months in hotels.

A low-level separatist insurgency simmers in Papua and the province remains one of the most sensitive areas in the vast Indonesian archipelago.

Journalists and most aid workers are banned from visiting Papua without special permission and the military is accused of human rights violations there.

Police raid airstrip in Indonesia's Papua, 3 killed

JAKARTA (Reuters) - At least three people were killed after police from Indonesia's anti-terror unit stormed an isolated airstrip occupied by a group of unidentified gunmen in Papua province, state news agency Antara reported on Sunday.

The three killed included two suspected separatist rebels after failed negotiations to end an occupation of the airstrip, Papua Police Chief F.X. Bagus Ekodanto was quoted as saying.

Several police officers also suffered serious wounds after being attacked by bows and arrows, Ekodanto said.

The group, which media reports said was linked to the secessionist Papua Free Movement, had occupied the airstrip in Papua's Kasepo sub-district for about two weeks.

Police arrested a suspected rebel and a 14-year-old boy for further interrogation, Ekodanto said.

Independence activists in Papua have waged a campaign for decades to break away from Indonesia, while a low-level armed rebellion has also simmered, often related to disputes over the sharing of rich natural resources.