Subject: AU: Letter on Kopassus
- Letter in the The Australian
- Institutionalised graft
- 20 December 2005
- IT is disturbing to read that we will again be involved in training
with the Indonesian special forces, Kopassus ("Licensed to kill",
Features, 19/12). Have we learned nothing from the past activities of
the Indonesian military? Kopassus has been notorious for its role in
human rights abuses in East Timor and West Papua.
- Many people may not realise that the Indonesian military receives
only 30 per cent of its budget from the government and must raise the
other 70 per cent itself. It should be obvious that such a situation
would leave any institution open to corruption. A recent report,
Genocide in West Papua?, by the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at
the University of Sydney, documents the Indonesian military's
involvement in illegal activities including logging, rigged construction
projects and theft of aid.
- While such entrenched practices continue, it is unlikely that the
professionalism of the Australian military will have any influence on
the TNI.
- Joe Collins
- Mosman, NSW
see also:
Background on Kopassus and
Brimob (2008)
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