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".