Papuan Mission

December 15th, 2006, in News, by Patung

The men of the 521 battalion from Kediri are marching off to Papua bringing guns, condoms, seeds, and religious tracts.

The 650 members of the 521/Dadaha Yodha infantry battalion based in Kediri, East Java, are shortly to begin a tour of duty of Papua, to patrol the border with Papua New Guinea. Major General Bambang Darmono, while carrying out an inspection of the men on the 14th, asked the officer in charge of the battalion’s health about the matter of condoms. Dr Silalahi replied [1]:

We’re ready, we’re taking one thousand condoms so that the men don’t get HIV/AIDS while serving in Papua.
(Siap, kami membawa seribu buah kondom, agar personel tidak terular HIV/AIDS selama bertugas di Papua.)

In response Major General Darmono said that it would be better if the condoms were not used, that is, that the men would abstain and just do their job of guarding the long, porous border with PNG.

OK you can take them but it’s better they not be used.
(Oke silakan bawa, tapi sebaiknya jangan digunakan.)

Condoms could be taken but Darmono was not pleased to notice that the battalion was also armed with dozens of religious books and VCD’s, presumably intended for distribution among the blighted Papuans.

It’s better you take a humanitarian approach, not like this. Don’t drag them [the Papuans] into this matter.
(Sebaiknya kalian kedepankan pendekatan humaniter, bukan dengan cara-cara seperti ini. Jangan kalian seret mereka ke persoalan ini.)

He hoped that the men would not bring religion into their job, whether their own religion, presumably Islam, or the religion of the Papuans.

Apart from religious materials the soldiers also plan to distribute seeds to the people of Papua.

The 521/Dadaha Yodha infantry battalion are to spend one year in occupation of twenty-four posts along the border.

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13 Comments on “Papuan Mission”

  1. Josef Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 8:32 am

    we’re taking one thousand condoms so that the men don’t get HIV/AIDS while serving in Papua.

    was also armed with dozens of religious books and VCD’s

    Don’t that just say it all.

  2. Mohammed Khafi Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 2:46 pm

    It does seem strange that we don’t allow prosyletising by aid workers, who come only holding their hands out in kindness and compassion, but allow prosyletising by our soldiers who carry machine guns? Oh and condoms!

  3. Colson Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 6:10 pm

    To me the sensible part of the mission seems to be the condoms.

  4. Mohammed Khafi Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 7:04 pm

    Colson said:

    To me the sensible part of the mission seems to be the condoms.

    And just look at the logistical problems of that, 650 macho young guys full of testosterone and only 1000 condoms for the year! I hope they didn’t forget the Rinso!

  5. Tomaculum Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 8:10 pm

    “We’re ready, we’re taking one thousand condoms so that the men don’t get HIV/AIDS while serving in Papua”

    Why they need condoms? How can they get HIV/AIDS? ……………….****!

  6. Rockstar Says:
    December 15th, 2006 at 11:29 pm

    the mission is to score..

  7. Anonymous Says:
    December 16th, 2006 at 5:53 am

    Can you make sense out of this:

    We’re ready, we’re taking one thousand condoms so that the men don’t get HIV/AIDS while serving in Papua.
    OK you can take them but it’s better they not be used.
    It’s better you take a humanitarian approach, not like this. Don’t drag them [the Papuans] into this matter.

    What on earth is going on over there?
    It seems that they want to persuade the Papuans to do something, by using sexual approach???

  8. Miss Indo 07 Says:
    December 16th, 2006 at 2:32 pm

    We’re ready, we’re taking one thousand condoms so that the men don’t get HIV/AIDS while serving in Papua.
    (Siap, kami membawa seribu buah kondom, agar personel tidak terular HIV/AIDS selama bertugas di Papua.)

    –> what the ,,, does that mean? serving with using condom?

  9. Cukurungan Says:
    December 16th, 2006 at 7:26 pm

    Why so many smart guys here but seemed no one understand why the army brought condom there. If you assumed that the issue papuan genocide was real in some extend. The armies don’t need weapons to make papuanes
    disappeared from this world’s. Just bring as much as possible hooker from Menado or Surabaya with suspect HIV to papuan it will attaumatically reduced the papuan population. sorry stopped here I will not explain further details hehehe

  10. olce Says:
    December 17th, 2006 at 2:29 pm

    hahahaha i agree with Cukurungan ( damn ur name is gross :P )

  11. Fanglong Says:
    December 17th, 2006 at 4:53 pm

    You’re right : 1000 condoms is not much for 650 healthy soldiers. It wan’t do if they don’t make it humanitarian. But they’ll make it humanitarian : they’ll read their religious books at night and, once or twice a week, enjoy a video. The condoms they’ll use 1,35 times without forgetting they’re “serving IN Papua”, and nothing else.

  12. Rococo Says:
    December 17th, 2006 at 9:04 pm

    So, it is the beginning of Islamization of Papua!

  13. seguni Says:
    December 19th, 2006 at 3:42 pm

    Are the condoms to prevent the 650 soldiers to get AIDS or to prevent the women in Papua to get AIDS from the soldiers. I wonder if they put the condoms in their survival bags. It might be a good way to store precious water or to make the riffle barrels water-proof. Hope to get news and statistical data about the usage of the condoms, and I mean the unusual usage.

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