US to Resume Military Training in Indonesia, With Eye on Reform
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
February 28, 2005 6:09AM EST

By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
February 28, 2005

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - The U.S. moved closer to resuming full military relations with Indonesia at the weekend, a move intended to encourage democratic reform and boost counter-terrorism efforts in Southeast Asia.

The State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has determined that Indonesian military officers may once again participate in the U.S. International Military Education and Training (IMET) program.

Ties were severed during the 1990s because of military abuses in East Timor, a predominantly Roman Catholic territory then occupied by the world's most populous Muslim nation.

After 9/11 and the emergence of Jemaah Islamiah -- a significant al-Qaeda-linked terrorist threat in Indonesia -- U.S. officials stepped up efforts to restore the military-to-military links, but they ran into opposition from lawmakers and rights campaigners.

The restoration drive floundered after two American schoolteachers were killed in an August 2002 ambush. Both human rights investigators and the Indonesian police suspect the ambush was carried out by members of the military.

When the military, known locally as Tentara Nasional Indonesia (TNI), failed to cooperate in an FBI investigation into the shooting in the remote Papua province, pressure from Congress delayed moves to lift the suspension of military ties.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement Saturday that Rice had now determined that Jakarta has cooperated, and continues to do so, in the investigation into the murders of Rick Spier and Ted Burgon, thus meeting the conditions set by Congress for restoring the training.

He said the department expected the resumption of IMET for Indonesia "will strengthen its ongoing democratic progress and advance cooperation in other areas of mutual concern."

Boucher noted that Indonesian Anthonius Wamang, a member of a separatist group, the Free Papua Movement, has been accused of involvement in the ambush and indicted.

Wamang remains at large, and Indonesian human rights campaigners are unconvinced that separatists were behind the attack, charging that the indicted man has extensive ties to the TNI.

'Setback for reform'

Indonesia occupied East Timor in 1975, and was frequently accused of violations there.

U.S. military aid was first cut back after TNI troops killed a reported 271 civilians demonstrating in East Timor in 1991. Nine years later the restrictions were further tightened after Indonesian forces were accused of involvement in the killings of 1,500 East Timorese. The violence erupted when militias loyal to Jakarta went on the rampage after inhabitants of the territory voted in a U.N.-sanctioned referendum for independence.

The TNI has also been accused over the years of serious corruption, a lack of budget transparency, and failure to adhere to civilian control and make itself accountable to the government.

A more recent anti-separatist campaign, in Aceh, has also been marked by allegations of abuses - emanating both from the TNI and from Acehnese separatist rebels.

Indonesian officers' return to IMET program will be a modest step towards the full resumption of cooperation, but has nonetheless brought strong reaction from opponents.

The East Timor Action Network, a group that campaigns on East Timorese and Indonesian issues, called the decision "a setback for justice, human rights and democratic reform."

Spokesman John Miller urged the administration to reconsider and tighten restrictions on military assistance.

He said the State Department's certification of Indonesian cooperation into the Papua killings "has far more to do with fulfilling the administration's long-term goal of re-engagement with the Indonesian military, than bringing to justice all those responsible for the ambush or encouraging democratic reforms."

Spier and Burgon were shot and killed along with an Indonesian colleague, Bambang Riwanto, as they drove in a two-bus convoy along a road near the world's largest copper and gold mine, in Papua.

The group, teachers employed at a school at the U.S.-owned mine, was on an outing at the time.

Indonesian police said in an early report there was a "strong possibility" that elements in the TNI were responsible, while the government and military blamed the Free Papua Movement.

The separatists denied any involvement, and urged U.S. officials to head the investigation.

Indonesian human rights campaigners and researchers in the region said a likely TNI motive for the attack was an attempt to extort more money out of the mine management by demonstrating the security danger to employees.

The company operating the mine, New Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan, has in the past confirmed to shareholders that it had paid the military millions of dollars for security.

In last year's annual report on global human rights the State Department suggested that the Indonesian investigation had been hamstrung by the military.

"Police contended they could not investigate the case without TNI cooperation," it said. "The TNI maintained that police access to soldiers was not necessary."

The FBI was brought in and, according to the State Department, Jakarta has been cooperating.

'Helping democracy succeed'

During the Cold War, the U.S. regarded Indonesia as an important bulwark against communism's spread through Southeast Asia.

Apart from other U.S. military assistance, more than 8,000 Indonesian officers were reportedly trained at U.S. military institutions over four decades.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired TNI general who took office last year after the first direct election for president in Indonesia's history, was one of the IMET beneficiaries, and a graduating of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

In a recent reshuffle, Yudhoyono sidelined army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu, known as an ultra-nationalist "hardliner" who refused to accept that rights abuses have taken place.

Former President Megawati Sukarnoputri had named Ryamizard as the next overall commander of the TNI, but Yudhoyono replaced him in the army chief post with a U.S.-educated officer, sparking speculation that Ryamizard would be prodded into retirement.

A leading proponent of restoring IMET is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a former U.S. ambassador to Jakarta.

On a visit to Indonesia in January to review U.S. military assistance in the wake of a devastating tsunami, he reiterated a desire to improve and strengthen military ties.

Testifying to lawmakers earlier this month, Wolfowitz said supporting TNI reform was an important way the U.S. could help Indonesian democracy succeed.

He argued that many of the restrictions on military ties had "outlived their usefulness," saying that the TNI of today was very different to the one which had perpetrators abuses in East Timor.

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