No official stance yet on military aid: U.S. envoy

No official stance yet on military aid: U.S. envoy

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Bali

The U.S. government has yet to decide on whether or not it will
abide by the U.S. House of Representatives' decision to withhold
military aid from Indonesia, according to Indonesia's top
security minister.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that U.S. Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce
telephoned his office on Tuesday morning to inform him of
Washington's latest stance on the issue.

He said that according to the ambassador, the U.S. government
had also pledged to intensify communications in the future to
avoid any further misperceptions on the latest issue to disrupt
the two countries' bilateral ties.

Susilo conceded that a senior staffer in his office had taken
the call as Susilo himself had to preside over an important
meeting.

"The U.S. ambassador tried to contact me this morning to
respond to our (government's) reaction to the U.S. lower house's
decision," he said.

"He (Boyce) said that the U.S. administration had yet to
decide whether it would comply with the House's decision to
postpone the military aid, including the International Military
Training Program (IMET)," Susilo said in a press conference after
a meeting with ministers under his coordination on Tuesday.

The U.S. House, not the U.S. Congress as was reported on
Monday, voted last Thursday to deny military aid to Indonesia
until the government carried out a thorough investigation into an
ambush in Timika, Papua, last August, that killed two Americans
and one Indonesian.

Although the decision still needs approval from Senate,
President George W. Bush's administration could be prevented from
providing military aid to Indonesia as the federal government
budget needs to be approved by the House. Nevertheless, Bush
could include the aid as part of another program as it did under
the global antiterror program last year.

Separately, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono
Sutarto said that the TNI "had never asked for such a small
amount of financial aid", and continued to vehemently deny that
the military was involved in the incident.

Previously, many foreign media and certain local NGOs had
pointed their fingers at Army soldiers who were in charge of
security at U.S.-based Freeport McMoran's Indonesian mine where
the ambush occurred on Aug. 28, 2002.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation sent its investigators to
conduct an inquiry after the military failed to solve the
killings to the Americans' satisfaction.

Boyce had previously denied reports that Washington had
decided to cancel its military aid to Indonesia.

"No, that is not true and I need to clarify reports saying
that the U.S. Congress has decided to cancel the disbursement of
the IMET aid. I hope that Indonesia won't get the wrong
impression from recent reports," he remarked.

He confirmed that the U.S. Congress had yet to make a final
decision on the issue.

Decision-making within the U.S. Congress is complicated and
slow, he added.

Meanwhile, Director General for America and Europe at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Arizal Effendy said the question of
military aid was an internal issue for the United States.

"We understand that it is part of their internal affairs
whether to provide the aid to Indonesia or not, but in line with
the long standing ties between the two countries, the House's
decision is disappointing," he said on the sidelines of the
ongoing ASEAN Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Nusa Dua Bali.