Surveillance drones deployed for Indonesia-Malaysia border patrol

KAPUAS HULU, Mar 28, 2022, ANTARA. Routine patrolling to check Indonesian border markers along the Indonesia-Malaysia border have been conducted by deploying camera-equipped surveillance drones, according to the XII/Tanjungpura Regional Military Commander, ANTARA reported.

“Patrols are conducted to monitor the condition of border markers through on-site monitoring or by deploying surveillance drones. If a border marker is damaged, we will promptly repair it,” Regional Military Commander Major General Sulaiman Agusto stated during his working visit to the border region in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, on Sunday.

The commander instructed his subordinates to intensify monitoring of activities in palm plantations that may cause damage to the border markers.

Agusto remarked that the border patrol team had earlier found a damaged border marker due to activities of a Malaysian-based palm plantation. The authority had dispatched a team to repair and reinstall the border marker, he revealed.

“The workers are Indonesian, but the plantations are Malaysia-owned. The damage might be caused by negligence in observing the border markers while working, but the damage had been fixed,” Agusto noted.

The commander affirmed that the activities of palm plantations along the border region will be continually monitored to ensure no other border markers are damaged.

“We will monitor and observe activities conducted in palm plantations to prevent any damage to border markers,” he stated.

During a meeting with the Coordinating Ministry of Political, Legal, and Security Affairs earlier this month, the Indonesian-Malaysian border security task force commander Lieutenant Colonel Andri Suratman of the 144/JY Infantry Battalion reported that of the 2,416 border markers placed along the border regions in three districts of West Kalimantan, 77 border markers were damaged, while 144 markers were lost.

Most border markers were lost due to natural causes, he clarified.

“We had conducted on-site patrols several times to monitor the condition of border markers, and we conclude that 144 border markers are lost after we failed to locate the markers. We had also reported the findings to our superior,” Suratman remarked.