wfn.org | Concern increases over U.S.-Indonesia military ties

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 6, 2000  News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212)870-3803·New York
10-33-71B{266}

By Rebecca C. Asedillo*

WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- Human rights activists and some members of the U.S.
Congress have voiced concern over reports that the Pentagon is resuming ties
with the Indonesian military.

According to these reports, the Indonesian air force sent observers in May
to the Cobra Gold military exercise in Thailand involving U.S., Thai and
Singaporean troops. The Pentagon has also invited the Indonesian navy and
marines to participate in a bilateral exercise that will be conducted by the
U.S. Navy in July. 

"It's very disturbing that they've started this again," said Miriam A.
Young, executive director of the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace,
an education and advocacy group in Washington that receives funding from the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. "The overall message that it
gives is that basically the U.S. approves the changes that have been made
(in Indonesia) and considers them sufficient. And they are not sufficient." 

Young contended that the political clout of the Indonesian military has not
been reduced at the local level. She cited reports that human rights
violations continue to be committed by Indonesian soldiers in Aceh and Ambon
provinces.

She also mentioned a recent attack by pro-Indonesian East Timorese on the
office of the Solidamor organization in Jakarta, in which four activists
were badly injured and office equipment was destroyed while Indonesian
soldiers watched from a distance. Solidamor has been a center for
disseminating information and building solidarity in Indonesia for the
people of East Timor.

Meanwhile, in a letter to President Clinton, 14 U.S. Representatives
asserted that premature resumption of military ties would send the wrong
signal to members of the Indonesian military still unwilling to accept
accountability and civilian control. 

The representatives, led by House International Relations Committee chair
Benjamin A. Gilman (D-New York), urged the Clinton administration to comply
with legislation prohibiting military assistance, including military
education and training, to the armed forces of Indonesia.

The law contained in section 589 of the Foreign Operations Appropriations
Act for fiscal year 2000 ruled that a prohibition on military assistance
must remain in force until certain human rights conditions are met. Such
conditions include bringing to justice human rights violators and providing
safe passage for refugees returning to East Timor. 

The United States suspended its military relationship with Indonesia in
September in response to carnage and atrocities committed by pro-Indonesia
militias backed by Indonesian soldiers in East Timor. The Aug. 30 vote for
independence in East Timor unleashed violence that was reported to have
destroyed 70 percent of the East Timorese infrastructure, killed hundreds,
and caused massive evacuations into West Timor and other outlying provinces
of Indonesia. 

Two bills, H.R. 4357 in the House and S. 2621 in the Senate, have been
introduced to require the continuance of the prohibition against military
assistance to Indonesia until certain conditions in East Timor have been
met. 

During the 2000 General Conference in Cleveland in May, the United Methodist
Church passed a resolution calling on the U.S. government and the United
Nations "to take all steps within their respective powers to reduce the
suffering of the East Timorese people, remove the forces responsible for
their slaughter and bring them to justice in an international war crimes
tribunal, immediately safeguard and account for all refugees within East and
West Timor and elsewhere in Indonesia, provide for safe return of the
refugees, restore . . . self-determination to East Timor, and facilitate the
rebuilding of East Timor as an independent nation." 

# # #

*Asedillo writes frequently for the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries.

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United Methodist News Service
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