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