Stevy Maradona – On 1 February 2011, Commander of XVII Military Area Command (Kodam XVII) Major General Erfi Triassunu vehemently denied that Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Border Security Task Force posts along the border with Papua New Guinea (PNG) would be closed.

"The [border security] task force posts in Papua will remain, and no personnel will be withdrawn. Our task is to empower defence regions," he said.

Triassunu said the posts would be maintained due to the continued security threat in Papua posed by internal and external [actors], adding that a number of additional divisions would be deployed to counter these threats.

"The current focus of our security operations is the central highlands, because security disturbances are continuing to take place there," he said.

According to Triassunu, there are currently 94 TNI security posts along the PNG border, which is insufficient given that it spans around 800 kilometres.

[From BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific.]