New Chapter in U.S.-Indonesia Ties Opens With Threats, Warnings

It has all the makings of a Cold War thriller.

An American tourist is arrested on espionage charges after photographing the bodies of people killed by police. A U.S. Navy destroyer sailing through the region is accused of running guns to restive locals.

Protesters burn an American flag. Menacing groups of vigilantes search hotels for American tourists to warn them that they must leave the country. A threat of violence prompts the United States to close its embassy. Government officials call for the expulsion of the U.S. ambassador.

But these are not plot twists involving some longtime American foe. They are the events unfolding today in Indonesia--a country normally considered a U.S. ally.

With Indonesia in political turmoil, an outpouring of anti-American sentiment in recent weeks has threatened to sour relations between the United States and the vast island nation.

The Clinton administration has had high hopes that Indonesia--the world’s largest Muslim country--would take its place in the ranks of democratic nations. But its president, the legally blind Muslim cleric Abdurrahman Wahid, is struggling to keep his grip on power a year after winning election.

Mideast Crisis a Factor

Some fear that backers of Suharto, the dictator who was ousted in 1998, are trying to return to power by fomenting violence and unrest throughout the archipelago. A rift between the United States and Indonesia--the third- and fourth-most-populous nations in the world--could further weaken Wahid in his efforts to bring the Indonesian military under control.

The deterioration of relations between the two countries has stemmed in part from violence in the Middle East, a conflict that many Indonesians blame on the United States.

It also results from mounting U.S. pressure on Indonesia to identify and prosecute members of the armed forces and paramilitary groups responsible for a string of killings and atrocities that occurred before and after the fall of the Suharto government.

In Washington on Wednesday, the State Department upped the ante by issuing a stern warning advising Americans not to travel to Indonesia because of potential danger. Indonesia--with exotic destinations such as Bali, Borneo, Sumatra and Java--is heavily dependent on foreign tourism.

“The Department of State urges American citizens to defer nonessential travel to Indonesia,” the U.S. warned. “Serious violence has broken out in the past year on most major islands. Events in the Middle East have increased the possibility of further violence.”

Wimar Witoelar, Wahid’s new spokesman, expressed dismay at the State Department’s conclusion that Indonesia is a dangerous country and said the general public bears no animosity toward the United States.

“People say there is a lot of anti-American sentiment in Indonesia, and of course I know that’s not true because McDonald’s is still full, Nike shoes are still selling, American movies are still selling,” he said.

At the center of the controversy is U.S. Ambassador Robert Gelbard, an uncharacteristically blunt and outspoken career diplomat. He has incensed some Indonesians with his message that numerous atrocities--dating as far back as the massacre of Muslim protesters at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok port in 1984 and as recently as the killings of human rights activists in Aceh last summer--should not go unpunished.

“They are the great unsolved mysteries of Indonesia’s recent past, and no investigation has ever gotten to the bottom of them,” said a U.S. official who supports Gelbard’s approach. “It is the determination of the ambassador. He is not going to be a silent accomplice.”

U.S. relations with Indonesia have steadily worsened since the people of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia last year and paramilitary gangs created by the military razed the territory, killing hundreds and forcing more than 250,000 to flee across the border into West Timor. The United States cut off military ties with Indonesia after the attacks. Indonesia has yet to prosecute anyone for the crimes in East Timor.

In September, some of the same militia thugs killed three U.N. aid workers, including an American, who were helping the refugees in West Timor.

Soon after, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen visited Jakarta and warned that international lenders might withhold aid if the government didn’t take action against the militias. So far, the government has made only a token effort to disarm the thugs.

Cohen was widely misquoted in Indonesia as threatening a U.S. economic embargo, which further aggravated relations between the two countries. The supposed threat prompted protesters to climb over the fence of the U.S. Consulate in the city of Surabaya, take down the American flag and burn it.

On Oct. 21, an American tourist identified as Aaron Ward Maness was arrested for taking photographs of people killed by police during pro-independence riots in the province of Irian Jaya. Initially accused of spying, he was quickly deported.

“Some foreign travelers in troubled areas of Indonesia have been subject to arbitrary arrest, detention and deportation and, on at least one occasion, false accusations of espionage,” the State Department said in its travel warning Wednesday.

On Oct. 26, the U.S. Navy destroyer O’Brien was passing through Indonesian waters when patrol boats sighted it. Indonesian officials claimed that the ship was gunrunning and it was chased off by the patrol boats. U.S. officials said that the charge was ludicrous and that the O’Brien had every right under international law to pass through the area.

Last weekend, groups of Muslim men went to hotels in the central Java city of Solo searching for U.S. tourists. They apparently didn’t find any but warned hotel clerks that any Americans they located would be ordered to leave the country within 48 hours.

Threat Shuts Embassy

During the past few weeks, protests outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, the capital, have become a daily occurrence. On Oct. 26, the U.S. closed its Jakarta embassy to the public after it received what it called a “credible threat.”

Officials would not discuss the nature of the threat, but the capital has been rocked over the past two months by a series of bombings, including one that killed 15 people at the Jakarta Stock Exchange. The embassy will remain closed until at least Monday.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab made light of the security threat and called on Gelbard to reopen the embassy. “Everybody can make phone calls, and it should not be taken seriously,” he told reporters.

Other Indonesian officials have accused Gelbard of trying to interfere in domestic affairs--a charge the embassy flatly denies. Some members of parliament have urged Wahid to declare the ambassador persona non grata and force him to leave the country.

Indonesian Defense Minister Mohammad Mahfud, a recent Wahid appointee, has been among the most vocal in criticizing Gelbard. He accused the ambassador of interfering in the Maness case and of trying to influence the appointment of top government officials. The embassy denies those charges too.

Mahfud, who has quickly earned a reputation for making outlandish statements, called for an Asian defense pact to counter U.S. influence in the region.

“If Indonesia, India, China and Japan unite to set up a joint defense pact, the U.S. would be limp,” the defense minister said. “The U.S. can be arrogant now, but I’m considering cooperation with other countries.”