Obstacles still hinder full military ties with RI, says U.S. envoy<\/p>\n
Steven Gutkin, Associated Press, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The United States remains ready to normalize relations with the
\nIndonesian army, but obstacles including suspicions of military
\ninvolvement in the murder of two Americans are preventing full
\nrestoration of ties, the U.S. ambassador said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ralph Boyce said other obstacles include the slow pace of
\nmilitary reform and resistance to holding officers accountable
\nfor human rights abuses, especially in the former Indonesian
\nterritory of East Timor.<\/p>\n
"There are very troubling questions about who was responsible"
\nfor the August killing of two American teachers and their
\nIndonesian colleague in the eastern province of Papua, Boyce
\nsaid, referring to police reports that army officers may have
\nbeen involved.<\/p>\n
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation in
\naddition to being a key U.S. ally in the war on terror and one of
\nthe few democracies in the Islamic world. But its military has a
\nlong history of gross human rights violations.<\/p>\n
The Clinton administration cut off all sales of military
\nequipment to Indonesia after a 1999 independence referendum in
\nEast Timor during which hundreds of people were slain at the
\nhands of the Indonesian military and its local proxies.<\/p>\n
Though Washington in January reinstituted a program to train
\nIndonesian officers in the United States, there are no immediate
\nplans to restore full military ties or sell arms to Indonesia,
\nBoyce said in an interview with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
The ambassador said recent trials designed to bring the
\nperpetrators of the East Timor violence to justice were "very
\ndisappointing."<\/p>\n
Still, Boyce praised Indonesia's efforts to root out suspected
\nIslamic terrorists and said the country had made impressive
\nstrides toward democracy in the five years since the fall of the
\ndictator Soeharto.<\/p>\n
However, he said a series of arrests and other blows against
\nsuspected Islamic extremists in Indonesia have not ended the
\nthreat of terrorism here.<\/p>\n
"It would be folly to assume they are eliminated," Ralph Boyce
\nsaid of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), the suspected al-Qaeda linked
\nterror group believed responsible for the Oct. 12 Bali blasts
\nthat killed 202 people.<\/p>\n
Boyce said Indonesia has moved beyond breaking up the Bali
\nplot, developing a "pro-active plan of rooting out this
\norganization.<\/p>\n
"That is to be commended," he said.<\/p>\n
A series of raids this month uncovered a cache of bomb-making
\nmaterials and resulted in the arrests of 18 suspected Jamaah
\nIslamiyah members with suspected links to the Bali blasts.<\/p>\n
Boyce said he believed Muslim extremists have become more
\nvocal since the fall of Soeharto - because of newfound freedom of
\nexpression - but not necessarily larger in number.<\/p>\n
"To me, Indonesia remains a moderate, open, tolerant
\nmulticultural society," he said.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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