Military remains cautious with Australia

Military remains cautious with Australia

JAKARTA (JP): The government seems to be making symbolic steps
toward repairing diplomatic ties with Australia, but for the
Indonesian Military (TNI) the neighboring country remains a
source of concern and apprehension.

Senior military officials maintain that their wariness is not
without reason.

TNI spokesman Rear Air Marshall Graito Usodo said Australia
had repeatedly highlighted and intervened in issues by putting
TNI in a negative light under the guise of human rights as
justification.

"There are many times we have been tricked by the Australians,
many times," Graito told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

"The human rights issue is a way for them to justify their
interference in our country," he remarked.

Graito pointed to a recent report from the United Nations
Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) which
presented a 16-point complaint on TNI on border issues between
East Timor and East Nusa Tenggara.

He said the accusations were groundless.

"Once again, when we checked and investigated these
complaints, none of them were true. We have drafted our
clarification over the reports," he added.

While UNTAET is an amalgamation of forces from various
nations, Australia has the largest contingent and government
officials have hinted that it is mostly Australian soldiers who
patrol the East Timor half of the border.

On Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab said
after a meeting with several TNI officials that Indonesia would
formally ask the UN not to place Australian troops on the border
because of "cultural differences".

The jarred diplomatic and military relationship between the
two countries has persisted since Australia's strong involvement
in a multilateral force in East Timor in September.

Indonesian defense officials have also repeatedly maintained
that Australian military airplanes violated Indonesian airspace.
Canberra has denied such claims.

The issue came to the fore again when British magazine Flight
International and the Australian Financial Review reported last
month that Australian PC3 Orion planes had been converted to
conduct secret spy missions from international airspace on
Indonesia.

The report said the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Orions,
under the code name "Peacemake", were monitoring the Indonesian
Military and other communications.

Relations were also not helped when it was discovered recently
that an Australian soldier had paid a Timorese to conduct
espionage on Indonesian territory.

Graito also vouched on Thursday for Maj. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri,
the former chief of the restoration command in East Timor, over
his testimony on the death of journalist Sander Thoenes who was
killed at the height of violence in East Timor in September.

Kiki recently said Indonesian doctors who conducted an autopsy
on Thoenes did not find any bullet holes on the deceased's body.

His statement runs contrary to reports of an autopsy conducted
on the body in Australia which states that a bullet hole was
found on Thoenes' body.

The military has also denied reports that it was involved in
the journalist's death.

The shooting of Thoenes is one of five cases focused on by the
Indonesian Attorney General's Office in its investigation of
violence in East Timor.

"I know Gen. Kiki as a true patriotic soldier and there was no
possibility at all that he would lie over such a statement,"
Graito said of the Udayana Military Commander.

But separately, James Cotton, a professor from the Australian
Defense Force Academy, told the Post here on Thursday that these
repeated accusations were merely based on long bitterness
harbored by TNI as they were unhappy with the presence of
Australian troops in East Timor.

Cotton said many of the complaints were also exaggerated,
stressing that the overall relationship between the two armed
forces could be viewed as "normal".

He further noted that espionage was conducted by every
country. (dja)