'Australia needs to resume working tie with Kopassus'

'Australia needs to resume working tie with Kopassus'

Reuters, Sydney, Australia

Australia should lift a ban on its military working with
Indonesia's Kopassus special forces to fight terrorism in the
region, despite the unit's questionable human rights record,
Defense Minister Robert Hill said on Sunday.

Hill said Australia needed to work with Kopassus, Indonesia's
counter-terrorism unit, following the Oct. 12 Bali bombings that
killed more than 180 people, about 90 of them Australian.

"We haven't been (working with Kopassus) in recent years
because of their human rights record. We now have to in the light
of the Bali bombing and the light of terrorist threats," Hill
told Australian television.

"Kopassus is the counter-terrorism capability in Indonesia,
and to defeat terrorists requires cooperation and mutual support.
Therefore that issue of dealing with Kopassus on that specific
subject is one that is before the government," Hill said.

Kopassus earned a notorious reputation for its alleged role in
the torture and abduction of dissidents during former autocrat
Soeharto's 32-year rule of Indonesia that ended in chaos in 1998.

Indonesian military prosecutors have received dossiers on
seven members of the unit as they try to solve the murder of top
Papua separatist leader Theys Eluay, whose body was found in his
overturned car in the far eastern province last November.

Police say two Kopassus officers are the main suspects.

Kopassus has repeatedly said it did not order the killing
although in April the military said troops were involved.

Hill said cooperating with Kopassus would not gain universal
support in Australia. Australia's opposition Labor party opposes
the move.

"You could argue that sends the wrong message in terms of the
sort of values that we think underpin a civilized society," Hill
said.

"On the other hand, let's say there's an aircraft hijacking or
something like that in Indonesia, it would be Kopassus that would
be called in to address it. I think there are a lot of
Australians who would say that we should be able to deal with
Kopassus in those circumstances."

Hill said co-operation with Kopassus could entail exchanging
counter-terrorism strategies developed from holding the Olympic
Games in Sydney in 2000. Hill did not mention joint operations.

"Basically, it could be opening up our processes to them so
they see how we address a crisis like that," he said.

"I think that there's a lot that they could learn from us in
terms of effectively dealing with such a crisis. But we need to
be able to talk with them to be able to convey that message."