Defense ties on agenda for Matori at U.S. State Department
Defense ties on agenda for Matori at U.S. State Department
Agence France-Presse, Washington
Indonesia's defense minister Matori Abdul Jalil met a senior
State Department official on Wednesday, to press the case for
revitalized military ties between the two sides, an argument
which has already won favor with the Pentagon.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met Matori, two
days after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged Congress to
ease restrictions on military relations with Indonesia, imposed
after pro-Jakarta militias went on a rampage in East Timor after
its 1999 independence vote.
Some officials, including some in the State Department, are
believed to be more cautious on the issue, however, fearing that
Indonesia has not yet done enough to purge the armed forces of
those guilty of human rights abuses.
"They discussed the importance of military reform in the
context of both sides' hopes to improve the military-to-military
relationship," said Lynn Cassel, a State Department spokeswoman.
"The minister enumerated a number of positive changes in the
Indonesian Military, and the deputy secretary noted that concrete
steps toward accountability would be useful in this regard."
Rumsfeld said after meeting Matori on Monday that Congress
should ease restrictions, saying that Jakarta was dealing with
past human rights violations "in an orderly, democratic way".
The State Department has requested US$16 million for Indonesia
in a 2002 supplemental appropriations request before Congress.
$8 million would go for a rapid reaction peacekeeping force to
deal with trouble in Indonesia's far-flung provinces. Another $8
million would go to train the national police in counter-
terrorism.
The Pentagon also has requested an additional $17.9 million
for a regional defense counter-terrorism fellowship program,
which could include Indonesian Military officers if Congress
gives the go ahead.
The Pentagon has had no military training or foreign military
sales programs with Indonesia since 1999 when Congress passed an
amendment barring funding for those activities until Indonesia
accounted for the military's role in East Timor killings.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States,
Rumsfeld and others in Pentagon have lamented the absence of
military ties with the world's most populous Muslim nation, a
potential haven for operatives of suspected terror mastermind
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.