RI-U.S. military ties must focus on management: Juwono

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Training programs for Indonesian soldiers in the United States should focus on financial management, says a former defense minister.

Juwono Sudarsono said on Thursday the Indonesian Military (TNI) should handle combat skill training for its troops and ask the U.S. to provide them with skills in financial management of military affairs.

"What the U.S. have to do is to train TNI troops on how to draw up and manage the military budget. So that its financial management will be made accountable, professional and accurate," he told journalists on the sidelines of a seminar :Indonesia Next, organized by Van Zorge, Heffernan & Associates in Jakarta.

"For combat training, just leave it to Indonesia," Juwono added.

Talks have intensified between senior U.S. and Indonesian security officials to reopen full military cooperation which was restricted in protest over the pro-Jakarta militia rampage in East Timor after the independence vote in 1999.

Juwono hopes the U.S. will soon resume its military ties with Indonesia to help Jakarta overcome sectarian conflicts and other forms of violence across the country.

Juwono also said that the training should not only involve high-ranking officers of TNI, but also low- and middle-ranking soldiers.

Under its International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, the U.S. used to provide TNI officers with special training in a range of areas, including counter-terrorism tactics, infantry, artillery, cavalry and construction.

Separately, Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil said on Wednesday that Britain had offered its help to convince the U.S. to restore military relations with Indonesia. He did not elaborate.

Matori made the statement after meeting British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon during the minister's recent 12-day foreign trip that included visits to Britain and the U.S.

The trip was aimed at seeking to restore military ties.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said after meeting Matori that the U.S. Congress should ease the military restrictions, saying that Indonesia was dealing with past human rights violations "in an orderly, democratic way".

But some officials, including those at the State Department, have been more cautious on the issue, fearing that Indonesia has not yet done enough to purge the armed forces of those guilty of human rights abuses.

Among the IMET program alumni are Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Gen. (ret) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo, TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and former Army Strategic Reserves Command chief the late Lt. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah.