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.