Indonesia ramps up security ahead of Pope Francis' visit

Indonesia Correspondent JAKARTA - Indonesia is stepping up security for Pope Francis' visit this week his first stop on a 12-day tour of Asia, with snipers being deployed and thousands of officers on standby.

- Hariz Baharudin

Pope Francis, who is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City state, is scheduled to visit the Indonesian capital of Jakarta from Sept 3 to 5, before making stops in Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore.

This will be the longest trip yet for the 87-year-old Argentinian pontiff, who now regularly uses a wheelchair because of back and knee pain.

Indonesia, one of the world's most populous Muslim-majority countries, announced on Aug 30 that it would be deploying snipers around the capital to ensure that the religious leader is able to travel safely between locations.

He will hold a mass at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, with more than 80,000 worshippers expected to attend.

Brigadier-General Tjahyono Saputro, head of public relations at the Indonesian National Police, said: "The teams have been trained if the worst-case scenario occurs...from terrorism (threats), demonstrations against the visit to earthquakes." The authorities have also set up a coordination team comprising the elite Presidential Security Forces, the National Counterterrorism Agency, the National Cyber and Crypto Agency, and the armed forces.