TNI accountability key to restoring ties with U.S. military

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With its long record of human rights abuses, the Indonesian Military (TNI) must be made accountable for its past before the United States restores military ties with Indonesia, U.S. Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce said on Wednesday.

"This accountability remains a condition that will no doubt be related to possible further normalization of our military ties," Ambassador Boyce said in a press briefing on last week's one-day visit by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In the pipeline of the U.S. bureaucracy is the approval to revive the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program for Indonesian military officers, which was suspended in 1992 following the famous Santa Cruz shooting incident, in which dozens of East Timor independence supporters were killed.

In 1999, the U.S. imposed a military embargo against Indonesia following charges that TNI hardliners were involved in the East Timor violence, which erupted when locals overwhelmingly voted for independence in a 1999 United Nations-organized referendum.

Pressured by the international community, the government set up a human rights ad hoc court earlier this year to hear cases related to the East Timor violence.

Middle-to-high-ranking officers, senior government officials and prointegration militias have been called to the bench in a move foreign observers have called "encouraging".

But Boyce said the East Timor tribunal was not the only litmus test determining the resumption of military ties. He said he was looking forward to seeing "immediate results".

Reviving the training program is seen as a first step toward normalizing military ties, yet Powell in his visit indicated that the possibility was still a long way off.

"The possibility of professional military training, which is called IMET, may be restored at some point in the coming months," Boyce said.

He said the TNI must demonstrate accountability and that included taking a series of reform-oriented moves.

The military has been criticized for its apparent reluctance to retreat from politics, a notion that has grown with President Megawati Soekarnoputri making overtures to the military in what analysts say is an attempt to secure its political support.

"My point is simply that should the professional military training be restored, we still have a long way to go," Boyce said.

Full military ties will allow TNI to purchase spare parts directly from the U.S. instead of through third parties, which is more expensive. According to the TNI, its funding from the state budget accounts for only 30 percent of its expenses.