Indonesia sends troops to monitor Australian surfies Tue 13 Dec...

Indonesia sends troops to monitor Australian surfies
Tue 13 Dec 2005

Source: ABC

Indonesia has sent a small detachment of troops to a remote island to secure it against an invasion of Australian surfers and to monitor their activities.

Seventeen Indonesian soldiers have been sent to Mengkudu Island, one of almost 700 small, largely uninhabited islands which lie between Bali and West Timor.

Indonesia's Antara newsagency quotes Colonel APJ Noch Bola, the military commander in the province of East Nusa Tengarra, as saying the Australians came to the island to surf, but one of them had married the daughter of the tribal chief.

He says the group had now put down roots and built five houses.

They had been excluding local people from their compound and he says this is unacceptable because the island belongs to Indonesia, not Australia.

Local community leaders have accused the Australians of being intelligence agents.




Boy, I hope they havent got any weed growing in their gardens.

GZ