Matori rules out presence of U.S. troops in Indonesia

Matori rules out presence of U.S. troops in Indonesia

Associated Press, Washington

WASHINGTON: Indonesia's defense minister says he wants an improved relationship with the Pentagon but no American troops to help counter international terror in his Asian nation.

Minister Matori Abdul Djalil met at the Pentagon on Monday with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to try to rebuild military relations shattered by the Indonesian Army's implication in human rights abuses in breakaway East Timor in 1999.

Asked by reporters whether he also had asked Rumsfeld for help from American troops in battling terrorism, Matori said: "No, because that is not our foreign policy.

"And we remain confident in the ability of our national police and the military to deal with these threats," he said.

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 its military's role in the 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 and a potential haven for operatives of suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Ten Indonesian army officers are currently on trial by Indonesia's first human rights courts for rights abuses, but so far no military officer has been punished over East Timor.

Matori, speaking through an interpreter, said that his government could not intervene in the legal process "but continues to encourage the court to have a fair trial."

Matori said his government has begun to reform the military, has put suspected rights abusers on trial and has established "the principle of civilian supremacy over the military in Indonesia."

At a news conference with Matori, Rumsfeld said he hoped those actions would persuade Congress to restore some contacts.

The administration has been "interested in finding ways to work with the Congress to re-establish the kind of military-to- military relations which we believe are appropriate," Rumsfeld said. He did not elaborate on what those might be.

Indonesian and U.S. defense officials held two days of talks last month. Such sessions are scheduled to continue. Although Rumsfeld didn't say what level of resumed contacts he thought appropriate, a number of events between the two countries are in the works: - Congress has approved spending US$ 400,000 this year to educate Indonesian civilians on defense matters. - The State Department has asked Congress for $ 16 million in extra money this year for Indonesia, with half to go toward training a policed counterterrorism unit and the rest to train and equip a military force to control problems within Indonesia that police are unable to control. - The Defense Department is asking for $ 17.9 million additional to establish a regional counterterror program among several Asian nations. It has not decided how the money would be allocated, but Indonesia is being considered for a portion, U.S. defense officials said.

In March, a court in Jakarta began hearing trials of 18 senior Indonesian officials and high-ranking officers charged with crimes against humanity in East Timor.