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Open Letter to President Barack Obama on His 2010 Visit to Indonesia from the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)March 18, 2010
The Honorable Barack Obama Dear President Obama, Your upcoming visit to Indonesia represents an important opportunity to usher in a new era in the relationship between our two nations -- to replace a relationship based largely on militarism with one that respects human rights and promotes the rule of law. The United States can point to two periods where our country has stood up for the human rights of the people of Indonesia and Timor-Leste: In the 1940s, the U.S. helped to negotiate the creation of the Indonesian state, ending a bloody independence war. In late 1999, the U.S. pressured Indonesia to honor the results of the United Nations-administered referendum, when the majority of East Timorese chose to end the Indonesian occupation of their country. However, the history of U.S.-Indonesia relations is much better known for the U.S.'s largely uncritical support of the Suharto dictatorship, from its bloody seizure of power in 1965 through its illegal invasion and occupation of then Portuguese Timor to the Kopassus kidnappings and murders of student leaders in 1997 and 1998.
You wrote in The Audacity of Hope that "for the past sixty years the fate of [Indonesia] has been directly tied to U.S. foreign policy," a policy which included "the tolerance and occasional encouragement of tyranny, corruption, and environmental degradation when it served our interests." In Dreams from My Father, you describe the dictator Suharto's bloody seizure of power: "The death toll was anybody's guess: a few hundred thousand, maybe, half a million. Even the smart guys at the [CIA] had lost count." The "smart guys" had, of course, encouraged and assisted in the coup. In 1975, President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger visited General Suharto in Jakarta and gave their approval for Suharto’s planned invasion of Timor-Leste (East Timor). When resistance to the invasion proved more intense than expected, the Indonesian military began a campaign of genocide to eliminate East Timorese opposition. Ninety percent of the weapons used in the invasion came from the U.S. Instead of condemning brutality, the U.S. government continued to support the regime, increasing U.S. weapons supplies and military training. Ultimately, up to 180,000 East Timorese died. Consecutive U.S. administrations continued political and military support for the Indonesian regime. The East Timorese people suffered greatly as a result of this support, as did people across the Indonesian archipelago, from Aceh to West Papua. They suffered rape, murder, imprisonment, extortion, starvation, disappearances and torture at the hands of the security forces of the Indonesian government. These human rights violations did not end with Suharto’s fall. U.S. policy largely ignored the well-being of the Indonesian and Timorese people, focusing instead on narrow strategic and economic interests in an agenda written by cold warriors and big business. When President Clinton and Congress suspended U.S. military assistance to Indonesia in 1999, the Indonesian military quickly agreed to end its final destructive plunder of Timor-Leste and allow the UN and international peacekeepers to begin the transition to independence. While these U.S. actions are to be commended, they show how essential U.S. support had been in maintaining the occupation of Timor-Leste. Tellingly, as the U.S. restricted military assistance in the 1990s through the middle of the following decade, real human rights and military reform took place in Indonesia. Since then, military assistance expanded. While Indonesia has made progress in many other areas, reform of the military has stalled. The shedding by the military of its many businesses has degenerated into farce. And the military continues to resist efforts to bring soldiers and former soldiers into court to face justice for committing human rights violations. Recently, the chair of the Indonesian government's human rights commission (Komnas HAM) told The Jakarta Globe that "the country’s mechanisms for tackling human rights violations had failed,” and pointed out that no human rights cases were brought to trial in 2009. In the past, you have acknowledged that certain foreign policies have been "mistakes," counter-productive and contrary to professed U.S. values. In this vein, we urge you to forthrightly acknowledge our history with Indonesia. Honest reflection on the past is necessary to build a strong future relationship with the people of the world’s fourth largest nation. Military Assistance We urge you to avoid the destructive policies of the past. In specific, we urge that you not offer military assistance to Indonesia, especially to Indonesia's notorious Kopassus special forces. There are already many forms of military and other security cooperation with Indonesia. We believe training Kopassus would violate U.S. law which forbids training military units with unresolved human rights violations. The law is not only meant to prevent future violations, but to encourage the resolution of past ones. This has clearly not happened. Working with Kopassus, with its a long history of terrorizing civilians, will undermine those fighting for justice and accountability in Indonesia and Timor-Leste and would signal that U.S. concerns about human rights and accountability are superficial at best, easily dismissed by a military which continues to resist reform. Greater Kopassus involvement in counter-terrorism will also undercut police and civilian primacy, while strengthening the military's controversial internal territorial role. This will only undermine the reforms that the U.S. claims to support.
We urge you to heed the recommendation of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste (CAVR), which calls on nations to "regulate military sales and cooperation with Indonesia more effectively and make such support totally conditional on progress towards full democratisation, the subordination of the military to the rule of law and civilian government, and strict adherence with international human rights, including respect for the right of self-determination." Justice and Accountability for Timor-Leste The U.S., as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, should work to establish an international human rights tribunal to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes committed during Indonesia’s 24-year occupation of Timor-Leste. Such a tribunal is supported by the many victims of these crimes and by human rights advocates in Timor, Indonesia and elsewhere. Last year, during the 10th anniversary of Timor-Leste's independence referendum, Indonesia pressured the Timor-Leste government to release a recently arrested former militia leader, Martenus Bere, "without charge, trial, or proper court authorization," according to the State Department's recent annual human rights report. UN-backed prosecutors had twice indicted Bere for, among other crimes, his role in the massacre of 30 civilians, including three priests, at a church. "The crimes against humanity charges against Bere included murder, extermination, enforced disappearance, torture, inhumane acts, and rape," the report says. We urge you to condemn the Indonesian pressure which undermines efforts to achieve justice and accountability for crimes committed throughout Indonesia's occupation of Timor-Leste. Defend Freedom of Association and Expression We also urge you to respond to demands of civil society in Indonesia by among other actions making clear that the U.S. supports an Indonesia that is pluralistic and tolerant and respects freedom of expression. We encourage you to press Indonesia to release all political prisoners. Support Human Rights Defenders We encourage you to press Indonesia to end the harassment of human rights defenders. Moreover, credible prosecution of those who ordered and organized the 2004 murder of Munir, Indonesia's leading human rights lawyer, is essential. Police Reform Violations of human rights by the police remain a persistent problem. As a leading provider of police training, the U.S. should examine the effectiveness of its program in conveying and promoting respect for human rights, as well as encourage Indonesia to establish an effective mechanism to take action on civilian complaints. Aceh
The post-tsunami peace process in Aceh has been widely praised by the U.S. and others. However, the human rights component, which calls for the establishment of a truth commission and a human rights court to deal with official crimes committed during the conflict, remains in limbo. We urge you to call for the rapid establishment of these important mechanisms. Finally, human rights violations and security force abuses are a persistent problem in the provinces of Papua and West Papua. We urge you to advocate for open access to the territory for journalists, human rights investigators, humanitarian agencies, diplomats and others. Indonesia must understand that restricting access to the territory is counter-productive and unacceptable. We also urge you to support the Papuans’ longstanding call for an internationally-mediated dialogue with Jakarta. Your upcoming visit can be a turning point in U.S.-Indonesia relations or it can be a continuation of business as usual. A genuinely democratic, rights-respecting and reformed Indonesia is in both countries’ interest. U.S. policy must promote and not hinder broadened democratization, respect for human rights, real civilian control of the military, and a strengthened judiciary that can stand up to the security forces and entrenched financial interests. Sincerely,
John M. Miller see also
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