Australia moves to renew ties with Kopassus: Hill

Australia moves to renew ties with Kopassus: Hill

Agence France-Presse, Sydney, Australia

Australia is moving towards renewing cooperation with Indonesia's Kopassus special forces, which have been accused of widespread human rights abuses, Defense Minister Robert Hill said on Thursday.

The commander of Kopassus' special counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 18, attended a 15-nation meeting of special forces and counter-terrorism officials held this week in Australia, Hill said.

Asked if this was a sign Canberra was moving closer to resuming counter-terrorism training with Kopassus after a six- year break, Hill said this was in Australia's security interests.

"One can imagine a terrorist scenario in Indonesia where that unit is called upon to respond," he said.

"In those circumstances we think it is very important that our special forces know who is responding and know their capabilities and be able to offer assistance -- it might be in intelligence -- to assist them in their task," he said.

Australia halted all cooperation with Kopassus in 1998 following allegations of human rights abuses in Aceh, East Timor and West Papua.

But since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. and the October 2002 bombing on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the government has been considering a resumption of joint training.

The foreign affairs spokeswoman for the opposition Democrats party said a resumption of ties to Kopassus would be dangerous.

"There should be no re-establishing of links between the Australian Defense Force and Kopassus until there is objective evidence that Kopassus is committed to protecting human rights and has brought all perpetrators of human rights violations to justice," Natasha Stott Despoja said.

"The Democrats believe that any resumption of cooperation with a military unit renowned for its disregard of human rights, and with possible ties to terrorism, will be detrimental to long-term stability in Indonesia, with implications for Australia's security," she said.

The counter-terrorism conference in the rural town of Bowral south of Sydney brought together special forces commanders and other officials from the U.S. and 14 Asia-Pacific nations to coordinate efforts to combat al-Qaeda and its Southeast Asian allies.

Participants included the United States, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.

It was the first time special forces commanders and counter- terror experts from so many nations in the region have been brought together, a defense ministry spokesman said.