PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA

111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8HW, UK
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Email tapol@gn.apc.org Website http://www.tapol.org

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7 August 2001

TAPOL is urging the US not to the resume military co-operation with Indonesia until substantial military reforms have been achieved and senior military officers have been brought to justice for rights violations and crimes against humanity in East Timor and elsewhere. US leadership on this issue, and its support for human rights and democratic reforms, are now needed more than ever, says TAPOL.

In a letter to US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, TAPOL counsels against the weakening of current US military restrictions at this critical phase in Indonesia's faltering transition from dictatorship to democracy. It warns that the military have been able to regain much of their former influence and are now in a stronger political position than they were when the current US military restrictions were imposed in 1999.  They are now well placed to continue and even intensify  their repressive policies in conflict areas such as Aceh and West Papua.

TAPOL points out that Megawati Sukarnoputri's recent accession to the Indonesian presidency was largely the result of the anti-reform strategy of the military and elements associated with the 'New Order' regime of former President Suharto.  The military did everything in their power to thwart the efforts of her predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid, to implement a programme of military reform, it says.

Now, "President Megawati’s close ties with the military do not augur well for the upholding of human rights, for a peaceful solution to regional conflicts and for compliance with the rule of law," says TAPOL.

The military has insisted on the military solution to conflicts in Aceh and West Papua and opposed Wahid's conciliatory approach. TAPOL welcomes US support for a negotiated solution to the conflict in Aceh where killings have reached monstrous proportions, TAPOL welcomes US support for a negotiated solution to the conflict in Aceh, where killings have reached monstrous proportions, and says the current US military restrictions should be strengthened to take account of what is happening there.

This week marks the first anniversary of the abduction in Indonesia of the Acehnese lawyer and prominent human rights activist, Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, a US resident.  Jafar's badly mutilated body was found a month after his abduction.  His killers have never been identified.

The US Government curtailed military ties with Indonesia in the early 1990s and suspended them following the involvement of the Indonesian military in the violent destruction of East Timor in 1999. According to a Congressional amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act ('the Leahy amendment') bilateral military financing and training cannot be resumed until certain conditions - concerning the trials of those responsible for the East Timor violence and the resolution of the refugee crisis in West Timor - are met. Commercial arms sales and other military ties are restricted by a 1999 executive order of President Clinton.

The European Union imposed only a temporary four-month embargo on military ties with Indonesia following the East Timor violence in September 1999. That embargo lapsed in January 2000 and was not extended.

ENDS

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