Human rights at stake as U.S. trains, equips Brimob

Human rights at stake as U.S. trains, equips Brimob

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The United States has allocated millions of dollars to equip and
train Indonesian police's strike force Brimob, a move that an
expert claims will improve the police's competence in dealing
with strategic policies in a new democracy.

Andi Widjajanto, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia and
also an alumni of the U.S.' International Military and Education
Training (IMET) program, said that ever since the U.S. froze its
defense and security cooperation with Indonesia in 1991, there
was "a zero generation" among personnel of the Indonesian
security forces.

"Now with U.S. assistance, we hope police officers can learn
how to draw up strategic policies on security under the banner of
democracy, which, of course, promote human rights values," Andi
told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

The training is also expected to improve the National Police's
capability in drafting and implementing a reform agenda.

Andi was commenting on a U.S. government Accountability Office
report which said that the U.S. violated its own law by training
6,900 Indonesian, Filipino and Thai police without determining
beforehand whether they had a history of human rights violations.

The Southeast Asian police were trained by the U.S. Justice
Department with State Department law enforcement assistance
between 2001 and 2004 at a cost of US$265.7 million, the report
said.

Among the 4,000 Indonesians trained in civil-military relations
and human rights issues were 32 trainees "from a notorious
special-forces police unit previously prohibited under State
(Department) policy from receiving U.S. training funds because of
the unit's prior human rights abuses," the report said, referring
to Brimob.

But a National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Sunarko Danu
Artanto said the report was the work of forces aimed at derailing
efforts to reform his department. The police have received the
bulk of U.S. training in recent years because of a long-standing,
U.S. ban on providing assistance to the military.

"We deeply regret such accusations which are blown up by some
parties who do not want to see our personnel become
professional," Artanto told Associated Press, adding that none of
the officers trained had records of human rights violations.

"Indonesia needs professional security forces to fight against
global crime and acts of terrorism. We have always carried out
our duties with respect to human rights."

The U.S. congress severed in 1999 most U.S. military ties with
Indonesia when Indonesian soldiers and their proxy militia were
blamed for widespread killing and destruction of property in then
East Timor. The U.S. had imposed an arms embargo on Indonesia in
1991.

The embargo was partially lifted as Washington determined that
Indonesia was cooperating with an FBI investigation into the 2002
killings of two American teachers in Papua province.

The administration of President George W. Bush resumed the
training program in February this year after recognizing that
Jakarta was also on the front lines of the Washington-led war on
terrorism. The Bush administration lifted the ban on the sale of
certain military equipment.

Indonesia's human rights activists said the report was not
surprising and reaffirms their concerns that the U.S. is moving
too quickly to normalize ties with Indonesia's historically
corrupt and abusive security forces.