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.