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.