U.S. to work with Indonesian antiterrorism police, not military: report

U.S. to work with Indonesian antiterrorism police, not military: report

Agence France-Presse, Washington

Concerned about a possible anti-U.S. backlash, the United States
will not train the Indonesian military in fighting terrorism, but
will work with its law enforcement agencies, The New York Times
reported on Friday.

The director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Robert Mueller, made a low-profile trip to Indonesia last week
for talks with his counterparts on the best way to pursue
terrorists in that country, senior U.S. officials told the daily.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim state, is a test
case of how Washington handles international terrorism in a
country strongly opposed to U.S. military intervention, the
officials said.

The meetings between Mueller and Indonesia's chief security
minister and national police chief took place not in the capital
Jakarta but in the island of Bali, a predominantly Hindu area,
the daily said.

While Indonesia has been singled out as a haven for terrorist
groups linked to al-Qaeda -- the movement blamed for the Sept. 11
terror attacks on the United States -- its President Megawati
Sukarnoputri has made it clear the presence of U.S. troops in her
country could destabilize her government.

"There is a deep sense of national pride and independence on
the part of the Indonesians," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz told The New York Times in an interview.

"If we want their cooperation, and their cooperation is
essential to our success, we can't look like we are interfering
in their internal affairs," he said.

Unlike the Philippines, where the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf
movement and other Muslim separatist groups control significant
areas, Indonesia, Wolfowitz said, is more like "the United
States, and most European countries."

Suspected al-Qaeda cells are present within Indonesian society
-- a situation that creates "much more of a law enforcement
challenge," he added. Wolfowitz served for three years as
ambassador to Indonesia.

U.S. military contacts with Indonesia were severely curtailed
by the U.S. Congress in 1999 after the Indonesian army was
accused of atrocities in East Timor.

Wolfowitz said that, over time, he did not rule out the
possibility of joint military training in counterterrorism and
counternarcotics operations.

He said there was little indication that al-Qaeda members
fleeing U.S. military operations in Afghanistan were heading to
Indonesia.