INDONESIA: US resumes military ties

July 26, 2000
Issue 

As two of its warships docked in the east Javanese port of Surabaya on July 20, the administration of US President Bill Clinton made official its re-establishment of military ties with Indonesia, after a temporary suspension during last year's carnage in East Timor.

CARAT 2000, the US government's Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training program to promote military cooperation between it and participating countries, began in June and ends in September. It involves Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

During the Indonesian phase, the US will concentrate on "troop and asset evacuation under combat conditions". Some 650 Indonesian personnel, primarily marines, will be involved. The exercise will take place in East Java, off Situbondo, from July 20-30.

But while US Secretary of Defence William Cohen said the US would be seeking to "re-engage Indonesia on a military-to-military level", a move the Indonesians have been lobbying for, East Timor solidarity activists in the US say the State Department has been promoting training for Indonesian police under non-military programs.

The US has been involved in military training with Indonesia since the 1950s and it supplies some 70% of equipment and spare parts to Indonesia's army, navy and air force.

Indonesian defence minister Juwono Sudarsono has used the crisis in the Maluku islands to push for the re-establishment of equipment supplies, arguing that without this, relief efforts would be compromised. Australia too has been asked to help out.

Clinton suspended US military ties with Indonesia on September 9, in the face of widespread public anger at the scorched earth policy inflicted on East Timor. Almost immediately, the Australian government suspended its training program with Indonesia's elite force, Kopassus. In a matter of days, a United Nations force had entered East Timor and the Indonesian military was forced to withdraw.

The decision to go ahead with CARAT has flouted a US law (the FY2000 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act) which prohibits the re-establishment of military ties, pending fulfilment of certain conditions.

Congress' conditions include the safe return of all East Timorese refugees in West Timor camps (there are still some 100,000-120,000 afraid to return home), the bringing to account of military and militia members implicated in human rights atrocities, action by Indonesia to end militia incursions into East Timor and cooperation with the UN administration in the new country. None have been met.

CARAT 2000 involves the Indonesian navy, marines and coast guard training with their US counterparts, staging simulated invasions of Indonesian islands. Previous CARATs, such as the one staged just before last year's ballot in East Timor, included live fire training, patrolling and raids. Some Indonesian officers went directly from last August's CARAT to East Timor.

Activist and journalist Allan Nairn, who was in East Timor during last year's violence, told a Congressional subcommittee on human rights in May that he had seen secret military documents, left behind in East Timor, which indicated that Kopassus personnel were trained in the "tactic and technique" of "terror" and "kidnapping".

One of the documents was signed by General Johnny Lumintang, a longtime US protégé touted by the State Department as a "moderate", and who was recently served with a crimes against humanity lawsuit.

Nairn said that the US Embassy in Jakarta, the CIA and other agencies are planning lethal training for the Indonesian police force, including their notorious Gegana and Brimob special units. "The police were an integral part of the Timor terror. They took the lead in the mass abductions. And they are at the forefront of the sweeps killing civilians in Aceh", he told the committee.

He said that Indonesian police documents indicated that the police have continued to receive training from the FBI and other US agencies in topics including "explosive incident and countermeasures".

The US says it will continue to exclude the army from joint exercises and focus on its navy, marines and air force. But as the US-based East Timor Action Network (ETAN) points out, all are implicated in decades of violence against the people of East Timor, Aceh, West Papua and other Indonesian provinces.

"A resumption of military engagement at any level will send a signal to the Indonesian armed forces that the US government believes they have been rehabilitated, legitimising the repression they continue to practice in the internal governance of Indonesia", a statement released by ETAN and other non-government organisations said.

"As long as the 'dual function' structure of the military places troops and officers at every level of society in a policing capacity, it cannot be claimed that civilian control has been asserted over the armed forces. The military is still a systematically repressive force in Indonesia ... This is clearly not the time for US military re-engagement with the Indonesian military", said ETAN.

Nairn summed up the US position: "The Clinton administration is now, in effect, planning to train the terrorists in anti-terrorism. These are lethal skills that up to now have been applied not to defend civilians but rather to abduct and kill them if the police and military do not like their views."

BY PIP HINMAN

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