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ETAN Praises US Senate for upholding commitment to human rights for Indonesia, Timor

East Timor and Indonesia Action Network Press Release - July 20, 2005

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) today praised the Senate for agreeing today to maintain most restrictions on US military assistance to Indonesia.

"The Senate has done the right thing for the people of Indonesia and East Timor by keeping restrictions on military assistance. The Indonesian military has a long way to go before it becomes an accountable institution that respects human rights and civilian authority," said Karen Orenstein, Washington Coordinator of ETAN.

The Senate version of the fiscal year (FY) 2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill would continue restrictions on Foreign Military Finance (FMF) and export of "lethal" military equipment until certain conditions are met. The House version would remove all restrictions on military assistance. A conference committee with representatives from both chambers must reconcile the two versions of the bill before it is sent to the President for signature.

The Senate bill, however, would provide $1.5 million in FMF for the Indonesian Navy. International Military Education and Training (IMET) funds would not be made available until the Secretary of State submits a detailed report on US and Indonesian efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the ambush and murder of two US citizens and an Indonesian in West Papua on August 31, 2002.

"We hope the exceptions included in the bill won't undermine the Senate's message that genuine reform requires credible prosecution of officers for human rights violations, an end to the use of militia front groups, and full transparency in the military's finances and operations," Orenstein said.

"The same conditions which apply to weapons sales should apply to military training and the Indonesian Navy," she said. "Any US assistance will be viewed by the still unreformed, unaccountable, and intensely corrupt Indonesian military as an endorsement of business-as-usual, not as a reward for very modest reforms."

"The Navy, like all other elements of Indonesia's security forces, remains largely unaccountable for many human rights violations, with a notably grisly record in West Papua," continued Orenstein.

The Senate bill would also require a report on troop deployments and humanitarian and human rights conditions in West Papua and Aceh, Indonesia's most repressed provinces. This reporting would include "the extent to which members of Indonesia's security forces support these [jihadist-oriented] militia," and "the extent to which international funding for reconstruction in Aceh is being contracted or subcontracted to firms controlled by or affiliated with the Indonesian military."

Relavent excerpts from the appropriations bill can be found at http://www.etan.org/news/2005/07senate.htm#bill

Contact:

John M. Miller (718) 596-7668
Karen Orenstein (202) 544-6911

Background

In the House version of the FY 2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill passed in late June, only a reporting requirement introduced by Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), who supports legislated restrictions blocked by the Republican leadership, referenced the poor human rights and justice records of the Indonesian military.

In light of the late May visit of Indonesian President Yudhoyono to Washington, the Bush administration announced it would permit government sales of "non-lethal" military equipment and excess defense articles.

In recent years, Congress had maintained only one condition restricting full IMET: cooperation by Indonesian authorities with an FBI investigation into the 2002 ambush murder in West Papua. In late February, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice restored full IMET for Indonesia, even though cooperation by Indonesia in this case has been spotty at best.

Just two days after IMET's release, the State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices said, "Security force members murdered, tortured, raped, beat, and arbitrarily detained civilians and members of separatist movements, especially in Aceh and to a lesser extent in Papua."

Under Yudhoyono, humanitarian and human rights conditions have significantly deteriorated in West Papua and militarization of the entire archipelago has increased. Only this week, over six and half months after the tsunami devastated Aceh, did the military finally announce it would suspend offensive operations as the government and Acehnese rebels prepare to sign a peace agreement. The Indonesian government continues to block substantive international efforts at accountability for crimes against humanity in East Timor. An appeals court this month overturned all convictions in the first test-case of accountability for Suharto-era crimes, the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre that left scores of civilians murdered.

In May, 53 US organizations urged President Bush not to offer military assistance to Indonesia. East Timorese and Indonesian NGOs have repeatedly called for maintaining restrictions on such assistance. Victims and survivors of the West Papua killings have called for continued restriction of IMET until their case is fully resolved.

Congress first voted to restrict Indonesia from receiving IMET, which brings foreign military officers to the US for training, in response to the November 12, 1991 Santa Cruz massacre of more than 270 civilians in East Timor by Indonesian troops wielding US-supplied M-16 rifles. All military ties with Indonesia were severed in September 1999 as the military and its militia proxies razed East Timor.

At that time, Congress banned FMF, IMET and export of lethal defense articles for Indonesia until a wide range of conditions were met, including presidential certification that the Indonesian government was prosecuting members of the armed forces accused of rights violations or aiding militia groups and punishing those guilty of such acts.
 

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