U.S. to Restore Indonesia Military Contacts

The Bush administration has decided to restore some of the U.S. military ties with Indonesia cut by the Clinton administration during upheavals in East Timor in 1999, according to administration sources.

The change is aimed at enabling the United States to regain influence with Indonesia’s armed forces at a time of growing political tumult there. Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most-populous country, is located along sea lanes that route oil from the Middle East to East Asia.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid is clinging to power, but parliament has called a special meeting in August to try to remove him for alleged improprieties. Some of Wahid’s supporters have threatened violence.

In the East Timor violence, some members of the Indonesian armed forces were found to have been complicit in abuses committed by armed militias there. Hundreds of East Timorese civilians were killed and more than 200,000 people were driven from their homes.

Some analysts have argued that the military remains the strongest institution in Indonesia--and the only one that can unify the country at a time of rising separatist movements.

Yet Sidney Jones, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental organization, says that such views “go against the notion that in a democratizing era, we should be strengthening civilian institutions.”

“It’s a cliche you hear all over the place that the Indonesian military is the only glue that holds the country together,” she said. “Yet it’s the brutality of the Indonesian army that has created a mass base for separatist movements.”

U.S. officials reached the decision to renew military links at a meeting several weeks ago. They have delayed making it public, however, in part because of uncertainties about Congress’ response. Over the past decade, several leading senators have voiced concern about human rights abuses by the Indonesian armed forces.

“We have to approach Capitol Hill very carefully on this,” said one senior U.S. official involved in the decision, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “This decision was made some time ago, but since then the situation in Indonesia has gotten worse, and so there’s been no movement yet.”

Spokesmen for human rights groups and for Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the leading congressional critic of the Indonesian military, say they will not oppose a renewal of U.S. contacts with Indonesian military officers--but would oppose any direct U.S. aid or training.

Leahy sponsored legislation that prohibits U.S. military sales or training to Indonesia until the armed forces cooperate with investigations and prosecutions of armed forces personnel allegedly responsible for abuses in East Timor.

“Sen. Leahy’s view is that there may be a time when we would consider resuming a relationship with the Indonesian military beyond mere preliminary contacts,” said Tim Rieser, an aide to Leahy. “However, they would have to demonstrate real progress in reform, including holding their members accountable for past abuses.”

Some of the U.S. government’s closest friends in Southeast Asia--including Australia, a key U.S. military ally, and Singapore, which permits visits by U.S. warships--have been warning the Bush administration to pay greater attention to the instability in Indonesia. They have also urged the U.S. to restore links with the Indonesian military.

Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong met with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in Washington this week.

A State Department official confirmed that Goh had emphasized to Powell the importance of working with the Indonesian military.

The point man for the Bush administration’s Indonesia policy is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, a former ambassador to Indonesia.

Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Robert Gelbard also has been in Washington in recent days for a round of policy meetings.

During President Suharto’s rule, the United States maintained extensive ties with the Indonesian armed forces until 1991, when government forces shot and killed peasants and activists demonstrating for independence in East Timor.

Following what became known as the Dili massacre, Congress began to impose restrictions on the military relationship.

However, under a separate Pentagon program, U.S. military personnel continued to train Indonesia’s elite special-forces unit, called Kopassus.

In 1999, after violence erupted in East Timor following the territory’s vote for independence, the Clinton administration cut off the military training programs. And on Sept. 9, 1999, President Clinton went further, issuing an executive order that suspended military transactions and all other Pentagon programs with Indonesia.

One congressional source who requested anonymity said the justification for renewed military ties is “so that we [the United States] won’t be out of the loop. The purpose is so that [Indonesian military leaders] don’t have as their only alternatives the Chinese, the Singaporeans or whoever else will talk to them.”

Jones, the human rights activist, said she was not opposed to mere contacts with Indonesian officers. “We’ve got contacts with some pretty awful people [in the world], and it’s pretty useful knowing what they’re up to,” she said.

However, she said, “How do you reengage with the military at a time when there hasn’t been a single prosecution of serious human rights violations by either the military or the police, without giving the impression either that you’re rewarding bad behavior or that the ban on these exchanges was a bad idea in the first place?”