JP/4US

JP/4US

U.S. should review aid policy for Indonesia

Agence France Presse
Washington

Indonesia's failure to cooperate in investigating the murders of
two U.S. citizens in the Indonesian province of Papua should
trigger a "fundamental change in approach" to the southeast Asian
nation, U.S. Senator Russell Feingold said on Monday.

President George W. Bush intends to release funds for military
assistance to Indonesia despite indications that the Indonesian
military was behind the murders, the Democratic senator wrote in
an opinion piece in The Washington Post.

The cost of the International Military Education and Training
(IMET) program, 400,000 dollars in 2003, "is insignificant in
comparison with the magnitude of this outrage," Feingold wrote.

"I believe that this issue should trigger a top-to-bottom
review of our bilateral relationship with Indonesia and a
fundamental change in approach," he said.

"But at the very least, we should start with a very clear and
unambiguous signal. The administration's signal is clear -- but
it is the wrong one," he said.

Unidentified gunmen last August fired more than 100 rounds at
a convoy carrying employees of the U.S.-owned Freeport copper and
gold mine near Timika in Indonesia's easternmost province. Two
U.S. teachers and an Indonesian colleague died. Twelve others,
mostly Americans, were wounded.

Police in Papua have said that a witness linked Indonesian
special forces soldiers to the killings. The military has blamed
a group of separatist rebels.

A Washington Post article last month quoted Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State Matthew Daley as saying: "The preponderance of
evidence indicates to us that members of the Indonesian army were
responsible for the murders in Papua."

The Indonesian military "has proved unwilling to implicate
itself and unwilling to cooperate with the FBI," Feingold wrote.

Indonesia has not received IMET for more a decade, but Jakarta
receives other types of military assistance, notably
counterterrorism training, from Washington.

Appropriations bills before both houses of U.S. Congress carry
amendments barring IMET for Indonesia until its government and
military cooperate more fully in the Papua investigation.

"But now the administration is taking precisely the opposite
approach and apparently intends to release IMET assistance to
Indonesia for the current year," Feingold wrote.