REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Chief of Indonesian Armed Forces’ Information Center, Major General Tatang Sulaiman said that the government has decided to conduct a military operation to free Indonesian citizens that Abu Sayyaf has kept as hostages.

Although the Indonesian military were allowed to enter the territorial waters of the Philippines, but it still should be legalized in the form of the agreement.

"We are respecting our neighboring countries and therefore we to wait until we have a status in our agreement. If anything, there must be a clear line between black and white, and this agreement can not be made only by word of mouth. The agreement, need to have official signatures” Tatang said, Thursday (30/6).

He warned there is a treaty (UNCLOS 1982) in Article 25, which prohibits foreign bases or troops occupying sovereign territory. By doing so, the military could not immediately take action in freeing the hostages.

Whereas the condition of the hostages, he said, out of seven citizens who are there, four citizen’s location has been detected and their conditions, whereas the other three is still not known.

“We will continue to monitor the seven hostages and try to use other means. Indonesian Armed Forces has the position ready as well as the conditions along with what our plan is, but we still did not move, because there are still constitutional issues. There are also other methods to monitor its movement," said Tatang.

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