RI, US AGREE TO ESTABLISH JOINT HEALTH-CARE RESEARCH CENTER

New York, Sept 18, (ANTARA) - Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Indonesia and the United states (US) have agreed to establish a new health-care research center that will be the only joint institution in the health sector between the two countries.

Speaking to the press here on Thursday (Sept 17), Supari said the research center, named Indonesia-United States Center for Biomedical and Public Health Research, would be officially opened in November 2009 and start operating in January 2010.

The center, she added, would only employ experts with a civillian background.

"The new institution will embody all of Indonesia-US cooperation in biomedical and public health research. There will be no other," Supari said.

Asked whether she was satisfied with the establishment of the new research institution, the minister said she was not only satisfied but elated about it.

"This cooperation will be conducted in a fair, equal and transparent way, something that never happened before in health-care cooperation between Indonesia and the US," she said.

Supari added the new health-care institution will be staffed with civilian researchers only, while the exact number of employees from both countries and other cooperation details were still being negotiated.

"The center will have nothing to do with the military. We hope the negotiations on the details of the cooperation will be finished in November 2009 and we can launch the center in 2010," she said, adding that the center would be located at the Indonesian Health Ministry's Center for Research and Development in Jakarta.

On June 28, 2008, the Health Minister had expressed her preference for the closure of a joint US-Indonesia medical laboratory located in Jakarta named US Naval Medical Research Unit-2 (Namru-2).

She said the presence of Namru-2 as a manifestation of neoliberalism which could threaten Indonesian sovereignty. Namru-2 was like a symbol of a foreign power holding Indonesia in its claws.

"This laboratory (Nammru-2) has been operating in Indonesia without a permit for over 40 years for research on diseases. Various types of viruses from Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia were studied in this laboratory," she said.

The minister suspected the results of Namru-2's research work was used for certain dangerous and mysterious purposes and she was also very concerned about the government's inability to protect the country from the threats of foreign powers already inside the country.

During a hearing with the House Commission I in late June, 2008, Supari especially objected to the fact that Namru-2 was headed by a colonel from the US Navy.