Next step with Indonesia

Next step with Indonesia

As the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln departed Indonesia
last week, the massive aid operation mounted by the U.S. military
after December's tsunami appeared to have paid off, both in
saving lives and in bolstering U.S. relations with the world's
largest Muslim country.

The positive feeling has given new life to an old question:
Should the United States restore full military relations with
Indonesia?

(Indonesian) Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono has appealed
for closer cooperation; senior Bush administration officials
sympathize. Quite apart from the needs created by the disaster, a
review by the administration and Congress is overdue. Most U.S.
military training for Indonesia, as well as arms sales, has been
suspended since 1992 because of the Indonesian military's record
of human rights violations. Congress imposed restrictions on
lifting the ban in 1999 and 2003.

The congressional limits came at a time when the Indonesian
army was unrestrained by weak civilian rulers and stood accused
of serious human rights crimes in the breakaway province of East
Timor...Yet as Indonesian democracy has grown stronger, so has
civilian control over the military.

While the United States has no interest in supporting an army
that violates human rights with impunity, it's counterproductive
to refuse to cooperate with democratic leaders who are trying to
carry out reforms. In Aceh, the tsunami led to a truce between
the army and local insurgents, and Susilo's government has
reopened peace talks in Europe with representatives of the
rebels. As Indonesia pursues such initiatives, Congress should
remove restrictions on training.

-- The Washington Post, Washington DC