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.