U.S., RI military ties remain in the balance

U.S., RI military ties remain in the balance

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A United States Senate's demand for the putting on trial of the
Indonesian Military (TNI) officers deemed to be responsible for
atrocities in East Timor remains a thorny issue in the efforts to
restore military ties between the two countries, a minister has
said.

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said on Monday that the
U.S. Senate also demanded the bringing to justice of servicemen
believed by some U.S. government offices to have been involved in
the August 2002 ambush in Timika, Papua, which killed two
American teachers, as another tough condition for the resumption
of military cooperation.

"I said 'no' to the conditions. I told the United States that
these cases should be handled by the Indonesian courts and should
not involve demands from other countries," Juwono said.

Juwono plans to make a trip to Washington after the
inauguration of President George W. Bush early next year to
explain Jakarta's stance to the U.S. government, Congress and
non-governmental organizations.

"If the States' policymakers maintain their demands, well, we
will have to turn to other countries and develop military
relationships with them," he said.

On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) forum summit in Santiago, President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono voiced a promise to President Bush to continue the hunt
for a rebel suspected of having killed the two Americans in Papua
province.

The rebel, Antonius Wamang, is strongly suspected of being
behind the killing and has been indicted by U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft with the ambush on a convoy of buses transporting
students and teachers of a school run by U.S. gold and copper
mining firm Freeport McMoran in Papua.

The accusation emerged soon after the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) concluded its investigation at the scene. The
U.S. officials said 32-year-old Wamang, who is still at large,
was a commander of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).

Another teacher, an Indonesian, was also killed in the
incident, while a dozen other people, including eight U.S.
nationals, were wounded in the attack, in which more than 100
rounds were fired.

The OPM has been fighting a sporadic, low-level guerrilla war
since Indonesia took over the huge mountainous and undeveloped
territory from the Netherlands in 1963.

Indonesia's legal system has come under the spotlight after
the ad hoc rights tribunal failed to break the cycle of impunity
and provide justice for the victims of the bloodshed in East
Timor in 1999. All of the senior military and police officers, as
well as a civilian -- former East Timor governor Abilio Jose
Osorio Soares -- were either acquitted at first instance or on
appeal.

Washington halted most military-to-military contacts after
Indonesian troops ran riot in East Timor. The U.S. legislators
want an accounting for these and other abuses before ties can
resume, but the Timika case is still seen as a major obstacle.

"I understand the position of President Bush as his country's
political system forces him to listen to the voices of Senators
and Congressmen, but am I right if I ask whether that country has
committed rights abuses in Iraq?" Juwono asked.