RI TO STATION DEFENSE ATTACHES IN SRI LANKA , BANGLADESH

Jakarta, Feb 22 (ANTARA) - Indonesia is to station two more defense attaches abroad, namely in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh after earlier cutting their number due to a limited budget, Lt Gen Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said here on Monday.

"We had earlier indeed reduced the number of defense attaches in several countries from 42 to 32 but after reevaluating it we decided to station two more defense attaches, namely in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh," the vice minister of defense said.

He said the decision to station a defense attache in a country is based upon the country's interest. "It is based upon its urgency and our interest in that country," he said at a meeting between the defense minister and House Commission I.

The commander of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI), General Djoko Santoso, meanwhile said that a defense attache is a selected figure that could come from the army, navy or airforce.

"Before becoming a defense attache, he is trained in various things including by the Strategic Intelligence Agency, financed by the state," he said.

He said a defense attache is sometimes assisted by military attaches namely army, navy and airforce attaches. "However it is not applied to all. It all depends upon the country's interest," he said.

Regarding cases of illegal accounts owned by some defense attaches Sjafrie said that there had been a disharmony between Presidential Regulation Number 018/2003 and Law Number 34 of 2004 on Indonesian Defense Forces, Law Number 3 of 2002 on Defense, Law Number 17 of 2003 on State Finance and Law Number 39 on State Ministries.

"All of the laws are connected. As a state official, a defense attache is paid and given an operational fund by the state through budget allocations for the defense ministry and the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI)," he said.

So, he said, the operational fund and salary of a defense attache came from a budget as well as approved projects (DIPA) funds allocated to the TNI and the defense ministry, which is distributed through the Indonesian representative office in the country concerned.

"So accountability with regard to the use of the funds is reported to the defense ministry and the TNI and not to the foreign affairs ministry as the status of their salary and operational funds is under the ministry of defense and the TNI," he said.