No training for RI troops on security

No training for RI troops on security

CANBERRA (AFP): The Australian government yesterday gave details of training given to Indonesian special forces but denied they were trained for counter-insurgency or internal security roles.

It said in a report that cooperation between the two countries' elite troops focussed on "war-fighting skills".

Human-rights groups protested last year when Australia's elite Special Air Service (SAS) regiment trained with the Kopassus special forces, which have been accused of rights' abuses in East Timor, Aceh, Irian Jaya and elsewhere.

The groups expressed concern that skills learned would be used by Kopassus against domestic opponents, labor or human-rights activists, or minority groups.

The Australian Defense Force (ADF) did not "provide training or undertake other cooperative activities with the Indonesian Armed Forces in skills designed to enhance internal security or counter-insurgency capability".