02/13/08 17:07

Two RI warships patrolling waters near maritime border with Timor Leste

Surabaya (ANTARA News) - Two Indonesian warships are currently patrolling waters near Indonesia`s maritime borders with Timor Leste where the political and security situation nearly became destabilized by the recent assassination attempts on the president and prime minister, a naval official said.

"Before the violence in Timor Leste, the two warships had already been conducting the patrols routinely under the codename `Operation Samor`," chief of the Navy`s Eastern Fleet Command Rear Admiral Adi Prabawa said here on Wednesday.

He said the two warships had not been specially deployed because of the recent violence in Timor Leste and there was also no plan to increase naval strength in the maritime border areas.

Timor Leste President and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta was shot in the stomach at his home in Dili on Monday while Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped injury in another attack. Horta is now being treated in a hospital in Australia.

"So far there has been no indication of a sea-borne exodus from Timor Leste to Indonesia," he added.

The command`s spokesman, Lt Col Toni Syaiful, added the unrest in Timor Leste had not had any impact on the situation in areas near Indonesia`s maritime borders with Timor Leste.

"The incidents have had no impact on security in the border areas," he added. (*)