Washington – There are indications high Indonesian military officials were involved in kidnapping and torturing pro-democracy activists, including those who remain missing, US officials told lawmakers Friday.

So far, 11 members of an elite Indonesian army division have been arrested on such charges as part of an investigation ordered by President B.J. Habibie, said John Shattuck, assistant secretary of state for human rights. "We are obviously watching very closely to see everyone who is arrested and formally charged in these proceedings," Shattuck told a House International Relations subcommittee. "We expect further arrests to occur."

Franklin Kramer, assistant secretary of defense for international security, said the US doesn't know the identities of the 11 suspects or whether they were trained by US Special Forces. Asked whether top Indonesian military officials might have been involved in the kidnapping and torture of activists in the weeks before President Suharto resigned in May, Kramer said it was possible. "So far as I'm aware we're not certain who they are nor how high up it goes," Kramer told lawmakers. "I have some indications that it may go up high, but I don't know." He said the indications were based on US intelligence information.

The Indonesian government announced the arrests over the past two weeks. Human rights group say at least a dozen activists remain missing. The military has said the accused overstepped orders to monitor protesters. Some members of the armed forces also are accused of organizing groups to incite the May riots in which ethnic Chinese were often targeted. Habibie ordered a military investigation into those charges in June.

Rep. Christopher Smith, chairman of the subcommittee, is among lawmakers who object to US military joint training with foreign forces. US-trained units, particularly in Colombia, have been accused of human rights abuses. "Our joint exercises and training of military units that have been charged over and over again with the gravest kinds of crimes against humanity, including torture and murder, cry out for explanation," Smith said. "How could we not have known who these people were?" The Pentagon ended the military training program in May, amid rioting that ended Suharto's 32-year rule.

Despite their criticism of the Indonesian military, Shattuck and Kramer praised recent restraint in quelling unrest by a population facing severe poverty and hunger caused by deep economic problems.

In a sign of progress, the Indonesian government announced Friday that it would withdraw some of the 12,000 soldiers deployed in East Timor. Human rights activists have complained that the military presence had been a constant source of violence in the former Portuguese colony, which Indonesia invaded in 1975.