PATRIOT AT THE LIMIT TAPAL

NKRI Price Dead. A frequent sentence in decorating walls and walls in the border guard post of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) with Democratic Republic of Timor Leste (RDTL).

There are 39 border posts consisting of 20 posts in the eastern sector and 19 posts in the western sector where each post is kept 13-15 TNI personnel from two Batalyon. They are merged in the Border Safety Unit (Satgas Pamtas) who is in charge of nine months.

Satgas Pamtas RI-RDTL has a statutory task among other prevention of border violations (limited) such as narrowing and dark markets, as well as holding coordination and safety cooperation with Timor Leste troops or UPF (Unidade Patrolhamento Forientra)/PNTL to avoid misunderstanding.

They also socialize the limits of the State that has been agreed and overseeing areas that are still problematic and helping related institutions (Polri, Customs and Immigration) in law enforcement in border areas.

There are four districts in East Nusa Tenggara which are bordered by East Timor, namely Kupang Regency, North Central Timor District (TTU), Belu Regency and Malaka Regency.

The total length of the border line reaches 268.8 km consisting of Kupang and TTU borders with Oecussi District (Timor Leste) along 119.7 km as well as Belu and Malaka who are injured with several districts in Timor Leste along 149.1 km.

Each border area has different geographical and social rusters. That’s a challenge for Satgas Pamtas members.

In addition to maintaining the sovereignty of NKRI, they also implement various empowerment activities on the borders such as promoting agriculture, fisheries, education, health, building regional infrastructure and building national awareness and social activities as well as various other educational social activities.

Photo and script: Prasetyo Utomo