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APSOC condemns resumption of US IMET program for Indonesia
APSOC Press Statement - March 1, 2005
In one of her very first moves in office, new US State Secretary Condoleeza Rice made the decision to resume full International Military Education and Training (IMET) for Indonesia. The decision to restart the IMET came after the State Department's certification that Indonesia has "satisfied" the legislative conditions for the IMET.
The only condition that the US Congress has made in recent years was full cooperation by Indonesian authorities with an FBI investigation into the August 2002 ambush murders of two Americans on a Freeport company mining road in Timika, West Papua. On this point, Indonesian cooperation has been sorely lacking. The case has not been solved; the sole suspect remains at large in Indonesia and Indonesian military involvement in the ambush has never been made the focus of investigations.
The Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC) condemns as outrageous the US decision to resume military education and training for Indonesia. The Indonesian army has a record of brutal human rights violations in East Timor, in West Papua and even in tsunami-hit Aceh. US-supplied firearms and military supplies were used in the East Timor invasion in 1975 and are being used in Indonesian TNI attacks against armed groups in Aceh and West Papua. Many Indonesian army officers deployed in these areas were trained in the US.
The US State Department wants Indonesia firmly by its side in the US-led "war on terror". It wants Indonesia, the world's biggest Muslim nation, as its ally in southeast Asia in its "war on terror". This is the only reason for US re-engagement with the Indonesian military.
The resumption of US military education training for Indonesia sends the wrong signal to past victims of the Indonesian army. It ignores international efforts to send top military officers to jail for grave crimes against humanity. It upends the campaign to form an international criminal tribunal for East Timor.
APSOC calls on human rights advocates and solidarity groups in Indonesia and in the world to express our collective objection to the US State Department's blatant disregard for justice and human rights.
We urge the State Department to reconsider its decision and more seriously look into Indonesia's past and current records of TNI excesses and role in human rights violations.
We call on the US Congress to continue restrictions on military engagement with Indonesia and to impose conditions of accountability for rights violations in East Timor and Indonesia. Stop impunity for crimes against humanity!
The Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition is a regional formation started in May 2004 to forge solidarity for peace, justice and human rights in the Southeast Asian and Pacific region. APSOC has 13 founding organizations from 8 Asia-Pacific countries: