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

U.S.-RI military ties should 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 titled
"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.