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'Charlie' tells more about Kopassus intelligence capabilities
The need for Densus 81 to have its own intelligence unit was felt after the unit took part in securing the ASEAN summit in Manila in December 1987 under the threat of a rebellion by the Philippines' own Lt. Col. Gringo Honasan.
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Charlie: Special Operations in Indonesia 1988-1993 (The Jakarta Post/Novan Iman Santosa)
T
he appointment of two former members of Tim Mawar (Rose Team) to two-star posts at the Defense Ministry has again put the spotlight on that infamous grouping.
The team was a covert operation set up during the last leg of the New Order regime in 1997-1998, carried out by operatives from the Army's Special Forces Command (Kopassus) Group 4/Sandi Yudha, or Combat Intelligence.
Kopassus was at the time led by Maj. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, the current defense minister, when it was tasked with “securing” nine anti-Soeharto activists.
Prolific military writer Ken Conboy mentions Tim Mawar in a footnote in his new book Charlie: Special Operations in Indonesia 1988-1993, a sequel to his 2002 book Kopassus: Inside Indonesia’s Special Forces.
While Kopassus traces back to the early days of the special forces unit, Charlie focuses on a five-year period when Kopassus was developing its intelligence capabilities.
The book does not focus on Grup 4 but instead a project called Project Charlie whose participants were taken from Kopassus's counterterror unit the 81st Special Detachment (Densus 81).
The need for Densus 81 to have its own intelligence unit was felt after the unit took part in securing the ASEAN summit in Manila in December 1987 under the threat of a rebellion by the Philippines' own Lt. Col. Gringo Honasan.
