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.