Hopes for RI, U.S. military ties mount

Hopes for RI, U.S. military ties mount

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia and the United States speed up efforts to restore full
military cooperation when the defense ministers of the two
countries meet in Washington this week.

Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil leads an Indonesian
delegation to Washington where they will meet with U.S. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, chairman
of the U.S. National Security Council Condoliza Rice, Pentagon
staff and congressmen.

Matori's three day visit starting Monday is arranged by
Washington as a follow-up to the security talks between senior
officials of the two countries in Jakarta more than two weeks
ago.

Matori's entourage also includes director general of defense
strategy Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, who headed Jakarta's delegation at
the previous bilateral meeting, and director general of defense
facility Rear Marshal Aklani Massa.

An agreement to normalize military cooperation will restore
ties the U.S. severed following the violence in East Timor in
September 1999 which was largely blamed on the Indonesian
Military (TNI).

A group of TNI officers, including three generals, are
standing trial for their alleged involvement in gross human
rights violations in the former Portuguese colony after its
people voted for independence in a UN-mandated referendum.

Sudrajat, prior to his departure, told The Jakarta Post that
terrorism was considered the main reason for the U.S. decision to
review normalization of military relations with Indonesia, apart
from its prominent role in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

"The U.S. assessment of internal reform within TNI and the
ongoing rights tribunal has encouraged efforts to restore the
military relations."

Indonesia's status as the largest Muslim country in the world
has caused Washington to worry that individuals and groups
sympathetic to fugitive al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, accused
of masterminding the September 2001 attacks on the U.S., could
flourish in parts of the vast archipelago.

At the same time, however, Washington had already lost access
to the TNI after the U.S. legislature endorsed Democrat
congressman Patrick Leahy's proposal to put the International
Military Education and Training (IMET) and Foreign Military
Financing programs with Jakarta on hold until TNI officers and
pro-Jakarta militias were prosecuted over the East Timor
violence.

Earlier, Rumsfeld expressed hopes of reestablishing military-
to-military relationships with Indonesia "in one way or another
in the period ahead".

The IMET program used to provide Indonesian Army officers with
special training in a range of areas, including infantry,
artillery, cavalry and construction.

Among the program's alumni are Coordinating Minister for
Political and Security Affairs Gen. (ret) Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, deputy People's Consultative Assembly speaker Lt. Gen.
Agus Widjojo, TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and
former Army Strategic Reserves Command chief the late Lt. Gen.
Agus Wirahadikusumah.

The IMET program was scaled down to just non-military
exercises following the bloody massacre of civilian at the Santa
Cruz Cemetery in Dili in 1991.

Sudrajat said the absence of networks between the two
countries had also affected the Indonesian militaries'
understanding of the U.S. point of view.

The planned review of military ties between Indonesia and the
U.S. has sparked fears of a setback in human rights protection,
democratization and TNI internal reform.

Meanwhile, Kusnanto Anggoro of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) and M. Riefqi Muna of the Research
Institute for Democracy and Peace (RiDep), asserted that
initiatives to bring democracy to the country should come from
inside, instead of from international pressure.

"After the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the U.S. has immediately
shifted its orientation from human rights issues to what they
call the global security issues. And Indonesia, as the largest
Muslim country in the world, is considered to play a prominent
role in line with those issues," Riefqi said.

Kusnanto suggested the U.S. government take the empowerment of
a civilian government in Indonesia as another condition for full
military-to-military relations with Indonesia.

"By improving the civilian roles, including the press and
politicians, I hope we will never lose control over the TNI,"
Kusnanto said.