I

ndonesia and Japan will co-host the ASEAN Regional Forum Disaster Relief Exercise (ARF Direx) 2011 to be held at several locations in North Sulawesi province, Defense Ministry officials said Wednesday.

The ministry’s director general of defense strategy Maj. Gen. Puguh Santoso said Vice President Boediono was slated to open the exercise to be held from March 14 to 19 in the provincial capital of Manado.

The exercise will also take place in several areas around Manado such as the islands of Bunaken and Siladen Mantehage as well as Sam Ratulangi International Airport, Bitung seaport and Maasing village, which is located in the coastal area of Minahasa Utara regency.

“The exercise will consist of table-top and field exercises,” Puguh told reporters at a press conference at the Defense Ministry.

“Table top exercises, which are command post exercises, will show the flow of the chain of command from exercise managers to field operators, while the field exercise will simulate a real disaster relief operation.”

Puguh also said the involvement of the Defense Ministry and the Indonesian Military (TNI) was part of both institutions’ military operations duty apart from war.

He said the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) would lead the overall aspects of the exercise while the ministry and TNI would only assist in the operational aspect as well as cooperate with participating foreign militaries.

Also speaking at the press conference was the directorate general’s deployment director Brig. Gen. Syaiful Anwar.

He said that 24 countries had confirmed their participation while Myanmar and North Korea had yet to confirm their participation.

“The exercise is to involve 3,520 participants and 931 foreign participants,” he said.

Syaiful said the exercise would assess the preparedness of provincial and regional administrations in North Sulawesi in disaster mitigation so that the regional administrations could improve their standard operational procedures.

He also said the TNI would deploy a number of aircraft and vessels for the exercise including a C-130 Hercules heavy transport aircraft, NAS-332 Super Puma medium helicopter, a number of warships and the floating hospital, KRI Suharso.

Several foreign contingents will also deploy a number of aircraft, vessels and other equipment. Japan will bring one landing ship tank (LST), two Landing Craft Air Cushions (LCACs) or hovercrafts, four helicopters and one C-130 Hercules while the US will bring one C-17 Globemaster III heavy transport aircraft, two helicopters, one amphibious vessel and construction equipment.