Indonesian Rights Activists Urge U.S. Congress To Block Military
Training
For Immediate Release
Contact: Karen Orenstein, +1-202-544-6911
John M. Miller, +1-718-596-7668; mobile: +1-917-690-4391
October 7, 2002 -- In a letter to members of the U.S. Congress,
Indonesian organizations expressed "great alarm" at efforts by
Senators and Representatives to lift restrictions on U.S. assistance for
the Indonesian military (TNI).
The letter (see text below) urged Congress to
maintain conditions on restoration of military training and weapons sales,
and to cancel new “counter-terrorism training fellowships.” Otherwise,
the groups stated, "the positive effect the U.S. suspension [of U.S.
military assistance] has had will most certainly be squandered."
The activists wrote that "Irreparable damage will be done to our
efforts at reform; any further attempts by the TNI to change old practices
will almost certainly end" should Congress provide military training
through the International Military and Education Training (IMET) program
or the new counter-terror program,
Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have approved the
restoration of IMET for Indonesia, but neither body has held a floor vote
on the bill.
"We were extremely disappointed to learn of the committees' show
of support for the TNI at a time when the military continues to defy
reform and has significantly consolidated power under President Megawati,
resisted accountability for serious crimes committed in East Timor and
Indonesia, and dramatically escalated human rights violations in Aceh and
Papua," the letter said.
The letter was distributed to all members of Congress last week by the
East Timor Action Network/U.S.
Congress first voted to restrict Indonesia from receiving IMET, which
brings foreign military officers to the U.S. for training, in response to
the November 12, 1991 Santa Cruz massacre of more than 270 civilians in
East Timor. All military ties with Indonesia were severed in September
1999 as the Indonesian military and its militia proxies razed East Timor
following its vote for independence.
Congress first passed the "Leahy conditions,"
basic human rights benchmarks which must be met before military assistance
to Indonesia is resumed, in late 1999 and strengthened them last November.
The FY00 through FY02 Foreign Operations Appropriations Acts required the
president to certify that Indonesia had met these conditions before IMET
and foreign military financed (FMF) weapons sales were restored for
Indonesia. Last year, Congress allowed civilians from Indonesia's defense
ministry to participate in the Expanded IMET (E-IMET) program, which
involves course work in such areas as civilian control of the military and
human rights. The current versions of the Senate and House foreign
operations appropriations bills continue restrictions on FMF. The
Counter-Terrorism Military Training Fellowship program was created through
a last-minute addition to the 2002 Defense Department Appropriations Act;
$4 million has been earmarked for this new military program.
The East Timor Action Network/U.S. supports human dignity for
the people of East Timor by advocating for democracy, sustainable
development, social, legal and economic justice, and human rights,
including women's rights. For more information, see ETAN's web site at
http://www.etan.org.
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Dear Member of Congress:
We are writing to you with great alarm in response to recent steps to
provide training to the Indonesian military (TNI). We are particularly
concerned with recent Senate and House Appropriations Committee votes to
resume International Military Education and Training (IMET) after many
years of appropriate restriction. As Indonesian citizens and NGO leaders,
we offer our views to help you make a better-informed decision when
considering the U.S. military relationship with Indonesia. We were
extremely disappointed to learn of the committees’ show of support for
the TNI at a time when the military continues to defy reform and has
significantly consolidated power under President Megawati, resisted
accountability for serious crimes committed in East Timor and Indonesia
and dramatically escalated human rights violations in Aceh and Papua.
We urge you to renew both the IMET and the Foreign Military Financing (FMF)
restrictions legislated in the 2002 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act.
We hold out hope that those Appropriations Committee members in both
chambers who voted for IMET’s reinstatement will reverse their position
and act to restore the restriction when the bill comes to the Floor for a
vote. If not, the positive effect the U.S. suspension has had will most
certainly be squandered. The little tolerance shown by the military for
the investigation and prosecution of previous crimes in East Timor and
elsewhere largely stems from its desperate desire to regain the approval
of the U.S. government. The $4 million to be provided to train the TNI in
so-called counter-terrorism programs this year will dampen this tolerance.
Should the Congress provide even greater approval for the TNI through the
provision of IMET, irreparable damage will be done to our efforts at
reform; any further attempts by the TNI to change old practices will
almost certainly end.
The current trials in Jakarta, far from representing progress towards
accountability for crimes committed in East Timor, have been a farcical
misrepresentation of justice and a humiliation for the Indonesian judicial
system and international law. Six Indonesian police and military officers
were acquitted in the first set of verdicts in August; the only East
Timorese defendant received a three-year sentence for crimes against
humanity. The trials are more likely to entrench impunity than end it. In
particular, the prosecution team under the Attorney General has shown a
complete lack of commitment to human rights and law enforcement. It has
failed to indict senior officers responsible for planning and directing
the violence and to adduce evidence of a widespread and systematic
campaign against civilians. It has also falsely portrayed events as part
of a civil conflict between two violent East Timor factions in which the
Indonesian security forces were essentially bystanders and the United
Nations acted discriminatorily against Indonesia.
We wonder if, perhaps, members of Congress are unaware that the kinds
of violations for which the TNI was well-known in East Timor continue in
Indonesia. The same tactics the TNI employed in East Timor are now used in
Aceh and Papua, including the formation and sponsorship of lethal militia
and village sweeps where anyone, even children, suspected of independence
sympathies are targets of military violence. Peace and human rights
activists are regularly assaulted with impunity; extra-judicial killings,
torture, and rape remain all too common.
In Aceh, the Indonesian government persists in its pursuit of a
military solution to the conflict with an excessive build up of troops,
attempts to sabotage the dialogue process facilitated by the
Switzerland-based Henri Dunant Centre and a vow by President Megawati to
"crush" the armed resistance. The result is a terrible death
toll - currently running at the rate of more than 100 a month, mostly
civilians - and widespread suffering exacerbated by a complete lack of
military accountability for rights violations. In 1999, a Presidential
Commission concluded that 7,000 violations had occurred during and after
the period from 1989 to 1998 when Aceh was a “Military Operational Area”
(DOM). It identified five particularly heinous crimes for investigation
and prosecution, but little progress has been made. Similarly, the
authorities have failed to respond in any meaningful way to the brutal
killing of three humanitarian workers employed by the organization
Rehabilitation Action for Torture Victims, as well as a fourth person in
December 2000, and the massacre of 31 people at the PT Buni Flora
plantation in East Aceh in August 2001. In both cases the military is
suspected of involvement. These are just a few examples of the hundreds of
cases in which the perpetrators have escaped justice.
Impunity also persists in Papua, most notably in relation to the
assassination last November of Theys Eluay, chairperson of the Papuan
Presidium Council, the non-violent formal negotiating partner representing
Papua to former Presidents Habibie and Wahid. Many other cases remain
unresolved. The Abepura case, in which a student was shot and two others
died in police custody, has been stalled by the Attorney General’s
office for a year now despite a finding by Indonesia’s Commission on
Human Rights that the case involved a gross violation of human rights. The
authorities have failed to respond to demands for an investigation into
rights violations committed in the Wasior sub-district, when operations by
the police special forces, Brimob, reportedly resulted in ten summary
executions, numerous disappearances and the burning of many homes.
We can only speculate that Representatives and Senators are not aware
of the fact that the Indonesian military often uses militia units to
further its political aims. For example, the Islamic fundamentalist
militia Laskar Jihad is able to travel throughout Indonesia causing
serious conflict because they enjoy the backing of powerful members of the
TNI and police. In Maluku, members of both the Laskar Jihad and the
Christian militia Laskar Kristus have provoked much of the inter-religious
conflict that has taken place there. Dozens of police and military
officers have publicly joined one of the two sides. Reconciliation stands
no chance unless this open support by the military for extremist wings is
ended. The knowledge that the U.S. could be directly assisting the
perpetrators of such violence and inhuman acts should give pause to
members of your Congress.
Like the U.S. government, we are also concerned about the existence of
radical Islamic groups in Indonesia. But only a very small minority of
Indonesians are involved with these organizations, which have little to no
proven connection to international terrorist networks. Rather, they have a
domestic base and focus. Moreover, these groups frequently operate with
covert and, in some cases, overt support of elements of the military,
police, and government. The greatest threat Indonesians face, and the
greatest obstacle to real democracy, is the military. If the standard
definition of “terrorism” is applied to events in Indonesia, then the
true terrorists are the security forces.
Given that the Indonesian military makes no distinction between
national defence and domestic policing (it is all "national
security"), the U.S. government must recognize that any training and
aid provided to the military can just as readily be turned against
Indonesian citizens as against external enemies. The Indonesian military
is, according to its official doctrine of "dual function," not
just a military, but a political force inside the country. The Pentagon
cannot claim that its ties to the TNI are purely military-to-military,
since the TNI is not a conventional military. Further, since the economic
meltdown in 1997, the TNI has increasingly played a dominant role in the
economy, creating a tri-function doctrine. This is particularly the case
in conflict areas like Aceh, Papua, and Maluku, where war economies have
emerged with overriding roles for the military and police. Unfortunately,
one casualty of the TNI’s economic pursuits is our environmental
heritage. The military, heavily involved in the illegal exploitation of
Indonesia’s many natural resources, is a major contributor to
environmental destruction, including the logging that is destroying our
invaluable forests.
We view the Pentagon’s justifications for resuming ties with the TNI
as cynical attempts to legitimise a decision based on narrow conceptions
of U.S. strategic interests. The problem with the Indonesian military is a
political one, not a technical one; it cannot be remedied by any amount of
training or dollars from the U.S. So long as the military the shadow
government of this country receives assistance from the U.S., as it did
for the thirty-three long, dark years of the Suharto dictatorship, it will
feel confident in resisting public demands to reduce its powers.
We do not ask the U.S. government to actively assist the pro-democracy
movement in Indonesia. We do, however, ask the U.S. government to make our
job easier by not assisting the TNI. Such assistance will only serve to
embolden the TNI to continue its assault on the reform movement throughout
Indonesia.
Honourable Senators and Representatives, we respectfully request that
you heed our words and withdraw your support for IMET for TNI. We ask that
instead you renew all military restrictions present in last year’s Act
when you vote on the Foreign Operations Appropriations legislation this
autumn. We further urge you to cancel plans to provide the TNI with $4
million worth of training for so-called regional counter-terrorism
training fellowships.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Ori Rahman
Presidium of Kontras (Commission for Disappearances and Victims of
Violence)
Agung Putri
ELSAM-Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy
Hendardi
PBHI (Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association)
Emmy Sahertian
National Solidarity for Papua
Bonar Tigor Naipospos
Solidamor
Rachland Nashidik
Imparsial, Indonesian Human Rights Watch
Winston Neil Rondo
Centre for Internally Displaced People's Services
Yeni Rosa Damayant
Women's Solidarity for Human Rights
see also:
Statement by the ETAN on
Restoration of IMET Military Training by Senate Appropriations
Committee
Senator
Leahy's opening statement to Appropriations Committee, July 18, 2002
Leahy Conditions on Restrictions of Military
Assistance for Indonesia Have Not Been Met
NGOs Urge Congress to Renew Restrictions on
Military Training and Weapons Sales to Indonesia
see also Legislative Action and
U.S.-Indonesia Military Ties
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