Military remains cautious with Australia<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government seems to be making symbolic steps
\ntoward repairing diplomatic ties with Australia, but for the
\nIndonesian Military (TNI) the neighboring country remains a
\nsource of concern and apprehension.<\/p>\n
Senior military officials maintain that their wariness is not
\nwithout reason.<\/p>\n
TNI spokesman Rear Air Marshall Graito Usodo said Australia
\nhad repeatedly highlighted and intervened in issues by putting
\nTNI in a negative light under the guise of human rights as
\njustification.<\/p>\n
\"There are many times we have been tricked by the Australians,
\nmany times,\" Graito told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"The human rights issue is a way for them to justify their
\ninterference in our country,\" he remarked.<\/p>\n
Graito pointed to a recent report from the United Nations
\nTransitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) which
\npresented a 16-point complaint on TNI on border issues between
\nEast Timor and East Nusa Tenggara.<\/p>\n
He said the accusations were groundless.<\/p>\n
\"Once again, when we checked and investigated these
\ncomplaints, none of them were true. We have drafted our
\nclarification over the reports,\" he added.<\/p>\n
While UNTAET is an amalgamation of forces from various
\nnations, Australia has the largest contingent and government
\nofficials have hinted that it is mostly Australian soldiers who
\npatrol the East Timor half of the border.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab said
\nafter a meeting with several TNI officials that Indonesia would
\nformally ask the UN not to place Australian troops on the border
\nbecause of \"cultural differences\".<\/p>\n
The jarred diplomatic and military relationship between the
\ntwo countries has persisted since Australia's strong involvement
\nin a multilateral force in East Timor in September.<\/p>\n
Indonesian defense officials have also repeatedly maintained
\nthat Australian military airplanes violated Indonesian airspace.
\nCanberra has denied such claims.<\/p>\n
The issue came to the fore again when British magazine Flight
\nInternational and the Australian Financial Review reported last
\nmonth that Australian PC3 Orion planes had been converted to
\nconduct secret spy missions from international airspace on
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
The report said the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Orions,
\nunder the code name \"Peacemake\", were monitoring the Indonesian
\nMilitary and other communications.<\/p>\n
Relations were also not helped when it was discovered recently
\nthat an Australian soldier had paid a Timorese to conduct
\nespionage on Indonesian territory.<\/p>\n
Graito also vouched on Thursday for Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri,
\nthe former chief of the restoration command in East Timor, over
\nhis testimony on the death of journalist Sander Thoenes who was
\nkilled at the height of violence in East Timor in September.<\/p>\n
Kiki recently said Indonesian doctors who conducted an autopsy
\non Thoenes did not find any bullet holes on the deceased's body.<\/p>\n
His statement runs contrary to reports of an autopsy conducted
\non the body in Australia which states that a bullet hole was
\nfound on Thoenes' body.<\/p>\n
The military has also denied reports that it was involved in
\nthe journalist's death.<\/p>\n
The shooting of Thoenes is one of five cases focused on by the
\nIndonesian Attorney General's Office in its investigation of
\nviolence in East Timor.<\/p>\n
\"I know Gen. Kiki as a true patriotic soldier and there was no
\npossibility at all that he would lie over such a statement,\"
\nGraito said of the Udayana Military Commander.<\/p>\n
But separately, James Cotton, a professor from the Australian
\nDefense Force Academy, told the Post here on Thursday that these
\nrepeated accusations were merely based on long bitterness
\nharbored by TNI as they were unhappy with the presence of
\nAustralian troops in East Timor.<\/p>\n
Cotton said many of the complaints were also exaggerated,
\nstressing that the overall relationship between the two armed
\nforces could be viewed as \"normal\".<\/p>\n
He further noted that espionage was conducted by every
\ncountry. (dja)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/military-remains-cautious-with-australia-1447893297",
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