'U.S. wants to cooperate with TNI'

'U.S. wants to cooperate with TNI'

Agencies, New York/Washington

The United States wants to cooperate with Indonesia's armed forces in fighting terrorism, although U.S. military ties between the nations are limited, the head of the U.S. Pacific command has said.

"The armed forces of Indonesia, the TNI, have counterterrorism responsibilities, and we deal with the TNI, and I think it's in both our interests for them to do it better and more effectively," Adm. Dennis Blair told the Council on Foreign Relations.

Military ties with Indonesia's armed forces were curtailed after its Army was accused of helping local militias devastate East Timor in 1999 when the region chose independence in a UN referendum.

Although U.S. officials say cells of al-Qaeda -- the movement blamed for the Sept. 11 terror attacks -- may be operating in Indonesia and wants to resume military ties with Jakarta, Washington is inhibited by a congressional ban.

Blair said the United States already works with Indonesian security forces in fighting piracy, gun running, narcotics and illegal immigration.

"However, we are not going to have a full military relationship with Indonesia that includes exercises and free exchange, the way we do with other countries, until the reforms that are ongoing in the Indonesian armed forces are more mature there," he was quoted as saying in New York by AP on Saturday.

"There has to be a better code of conduct by their troops so that they can act more professionally, there has to be accountability when they do the wrong thing," he said.

As these elements of military reform mature, "We can have a relationship that is pretty normal," he said.

In the fight against terrorism, Blair said: "We want to cooperate with the right groups in Indonesia that are going against terrorism." That means, he said, help in the intelligence and security areas, some sort of military element.

He said that unlike the joint task force in the Philippines, the military component "will be much more tailored and playing much more of a support role".

About 660 U.S. troops, including 160 Special Forces members, are in the southern Philippines to train Filipino soldiers battling the Abu Sayyaf rebels who hold hostage Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kansas, and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap.

Blair's statement, however, contradict an earlier report claiming the United States government favored cooperation with the Indonesian police rather than its military after concerns about a possible anti-U.S. backlash.

"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 published on Friday.

"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.

The director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Mueller, made a low-profile trip to Indonesia earlier this month for talks with his counterparts on the best way to pursue terrorists in Indonesia, Wolfowitz said.

The meetings between Mueller and Indonesia's chief security minister and National Police chief took place not in the capital Jakarta but in Bali, a predominantly Hindu area.

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".

He said that suspected al-Qaeda cells were present within Indonesian society -- a situation that creates "much more of a law enforcement challenge". Wolfowitz served for three years as ambassador to Indonesia.

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

He was quoted by AFP as saying that there was little indication that al-Qaeda members fleeing U.S. military operations in Afghanistan were heading to Indonesia.

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.

While Indonesia has been singled out as a haven for terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda, President Megawati Soekarnoputri has made it clear the presence of U.S. troops in Indonesia could destabilize her government.