Peter Cave: Well, the death of al-Ghozi may have been a small victory, but the continuing fight against regional terrorism has suffered a setback, it seems, with Australia and Indonesia at loggerheads over plans for closer defence cooperation.
The Australian Government has been keen to renew links between the Australian Defence Force and the Indonesian military's elite Special Forces Unit, Kopassus. The ties were severed in the wake of Australia's intervention in East Timor, but since then efforts have been underway to establish joint counter-terrorism exercises.
Those plans however, have already hit a major snag, with Indonesia refusing Australian requests to exclude members of Kopassus with a history of human rights abuse. Nick Grimm reports.
Nick Grimm: The Australian Government has confirmed it extended an invitation to the commander of Indonesia's notorious Special Forces Unit, Kopassus, to come to this country to observe security arrangements for the Rugby World Cup. But with those plans underway, the Australian Defence Force then objected to Major General Sriyanto coming here.
He's currently on trial for murder in an Indonesian human rights court, over his alleged involvement in an incident in 1984, which has become known as the "Tanjung Priok Massacre". It's alleged he ordered his troops to open fire into a crowd of civilians.
Nick Grimm: Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, speaking on The World Today.
Alexander Downer: In the end, it's inappropriate for the Australian Defence Force to be involved in training with people in the Indonesian military, or for that matter in the Indonesian system generally, who have been involved in and in some cases, charged with egregious human rights abuses.
Nick Grimm: But when Australia submitted a list of members of Kopassus it would rather not have to deal with, Indonesia's response was to withdraw from the planned trip to Australia altogether, on the grounds it would not have members of its military to be vetted by its neighbour.
Alexander Downer: The Indonesian military feel that it's not Australia's job to pick and choose individual officers who can participate in exercises – not that that was an exercise, by the way. And that's been their position for quite some time.
Nick Grimm: Now plans for joint counter-terrorism exercises later this year, have been put on hold. For its part, the Federal Opposition has maintained firm opposition to renewing ties with Kopassus.
Shadow Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.
Kevin Rudd: Well, the Australian Government's position's [was] untenable from the outset, because Kopassus of itself as an organisation still is problematic. Kopassus has a past history in the not too far distant past, of working with terrorist organisations on the ground in Indonesia, namely Laskar Jihad.
So, our policy all along is that you can't separate people out. The Government seem to have this, I think, delusional approach that you could say over here in one corner are the good Kopassus people and over here in the other corner are the bad Kopassus people.
Nick Grimm: Indonesia expert, Professor Harold Crouch, from the Australian National University is currently visiting Indonesia conducting research. He argues that human rights abuses have long been part of a deeply entrenched culture within Kopassus.
Harold Crouch: So, they have never shown themselves very restrained on human rights type issues. In fact, they often ... some of the soldiers who've been accused of human rights violation are treated as heroes by their colleagues in the Kopassus.
For example, there were several who were convicted actually not so long ago for killing the leader of the peaceful Papua Independence Movement. When they were convicted, the Army Chief-of-Staff, in fact, praised them and said it would be more proper to treat them as heroes rather than as convicts.
I mean, there's a slogan that the Kopassus is supposed to use; if one of their people get killed in an operation they will kill ten of the other side.
Nick Grimm: But others urge the Australian Government to stick to its guns and not relent to Indonesian pressure for its military's human rights abuses to be overlooked.
Sidney Jones is the Jakarta-based South East Asia Project Director with the International Crisis Group.
Sidney Jones: Well, it may jeopardise that restoration completely, but I think it's appropriate that the Australian Government refuse to allow Kopassus to dictate the terms of restoring relations.
Nick Grimm: Why is that?
Sidney Jones: Because you don't [want] to have people that have been responsible for serious human rights abuses being allowed into the country for additional training that would then perhaps enable them to do the same except with greater expertise.
Peter Cave: Sidney Jones from the International Crisis Group. Nick Grimm was our reporter.