U.S. military training still open to Indonesia

U.S. military training still open to Indonesia

JAKARTA (JP): Although Indonesia no longer receives U.S. aid
to train its military officers, American education facilities are
still available to members of the Indonesian Armed Forces, a
senior official of the U.S. State Department said yesterday.

The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific
Affairs, Winston Lord, told reporters yesterday that Indonesia
could still purchase the International Military and Education
Training (IMET) programs.

Lord suggested that both nations would benefit if Indonesia
continued to send its officers to train in the United States.

These programs are not only for those who are interested in
having ties with Indonesia in general but also for those who are
for "an open society, a moderate military and promoting human
rights", he said.

Lord was speaking at the U.S. embassy after spending the day
meeting with Indonesian officials, including Minister of Foreign
Affairs Ali Alatas, Coordinating Minister for Industry and Trade
Hartarto and Minister of Trade Satrio B. Joedono.

The U.S. government suspended all aid under the IMET programs
to Indonesia, worth an estimated $2 million a year, as a protest
over the way the Indonesian Armed Forces handled a demonstration
in Dili, East Timor, in 1992.

Since then, Indonesia has switched to Australian training
facilities.

In another development, the U.S. Senate last month approved a
bill calling for a ban on sales of light arms to Indonesia until
"significant progress was made in East Timor".

The decision, however, still has to pass through a House-
Senate conference committee where it will be resolved in
accordance to a similar bill which was passed earlier in May by
the House of Representatives.

Lord said the U.S. government has worked hard with the
Congress towards what it considers the "most constructive
approach" to the issue.

East Timor

"We do share the same concerns (with the Congress) on human
rights issues and the East Timor issue ... but we are also
working to make clear that we didn't think the approach that was
being debated was the best way to go about this," he said.

He added that he expected the result of the debates to be a
final outcome "which I think all of us can live with".

Lord, who met with members of the National Commission on Human
Rights and editors of the Suara Timor Timur daily, pointed out
that the East Timor issue was important for both Indonesia and
the U.S. and was discussed in the context of an over-all
relationship.

He said the "positive elements" of the two countries, such as
growing investment ties and good military access made it easier
for both countries to discuss "as friends and as two great
countries" whatever differences the two had.

"We have continually raised the East Timor situation with our
Indonesian friends ... and hope there will be improvement and
reasonable progress in the situation," he said.

Commenting on U.S. foreign policy, which is considered by many
observers as giving the impression of uncertainty since Bill
Clinton's presidency, Lord said the U.S. simply believes that
every country must follow its own cultural and historical paths
and seek its own destiny.

"We're not going to pursue these issues with any sense of
arrogance or that people have to be like Americans, but we will
discuss universal principles," he said.

He added that these fundamentals included the belief that open
societies would mean better and faster development in the present
era and that open societies would make better neighbors as they
did not tend to produce terrorism, refugees or wage war on each
other. (pwn)