PUBLIC ASKED TO REMAIN CALM DURING JOINT TNI-POLRI EXERCISE

Jakarta, Dec 19 (ANTARA) - The National Police has asked the public to stay calm when the National Defense Forces (TNI) and Police conduct joint anti-terror exercise activities in public areas on Sunday (Dec 22).
"If people hear bomb explosions or gunshots on Sunday, they should not panic because it is only an exercise," the National Police Headquarters' official spokesman, Insp Gen Abubakar Nataprawira, said here on Friday.
He admitted the exercise activities might disturb the public but stressed he hoped they would understand it was held to serve a national interest.
The exercise would be conducted simultaneously in six areas, namely in the Malacca Strait, Jakarta, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, and Denpasar.
"Field activities will start at 8 am on Sunday," Nataprawira said, adding that in Jakarta they would be carried out at The Sultan Hotel, Borobudur Hotel, the Indonesia Stock Exchange building, Tanjung Priok port, and Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force base.
In Semarang, the exercise would be conducted at the telecommunication building, Ciputra Hotel, Quality Hotel, in Yogyakarta at the Jayakarta Hotel, in Surabaya at the JW Marriott Hotel, Sangri La Hotel, and Sheraton Hotel.
In Denpasar, exercise activities would take place at the Hard Rock Cafe, Continental Hotel, and The Westin Hotel.
The exercise would involve 6,597 personnel in the field and 350 others in command posts.
At command-post level, exercise activities would start on Friday and in the field on Sunday, December 21, 2008.
Nataprawira also said the joint exercise was also meant to demonstrate that the TNI and Polri would not tolerate any terrorist action.
The joint exercise would officially end on Monday, December 22, 2008, at the Halim Perdanakusuma air force base in eastern Jakarta.