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Military ties: US spells out terms to Indonesia

Straits Times - September 1, 2001

Jakarta – Indonesia must properly punish the killers of three UN workers before the United States can resume full military ties, a senior US official said yesterday.

Visiting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly said Washington "very much wants to have a good relationship with Indonesia's military". "But our Congress has put some limitations on us that would have to do with the accountability for some things that have happened in the past," he said.

Most US military contacts were cut when Indonesian troops were implicated in a militia rampage ignited by East Timor's vote for independence in 1999. Mr Kelly said one of the stumbling blocks for the resumption of military ties was the lenient sentencing of six East Timorese militiamen for the murder of three UN humanitarian staff – including an American – in Indonesian West Timor last September.

A Jakarta court in May found all six men not guilty of murder and instead sentenced them to between 20 and 10 months in jail for other minor crimes. "The judicial remedies that were taken did not seem to be proportionate to the terrible nature of the crime," Mr Kelly said. "These problems need to have some progress before we can have full relationship with Indonesia's military that I hope will develop again before long." The staff – an American, a Croatian and an Ethiopian – were stoned, stabbed and beaten to death by a mob. Their bodies were set on fire.

Mr Kelly said he did not have a timetable for Washington to resume ties with Jakarta, but it would be "something that we're going to have to work out over time". "There are some modest things that we're able to do together and I hope we can build on this over a period of time and be in a better state," he added.

He was speaking at a press briefing after a courtesy call on Indonesian Vice-President Hamzah Haz. Mr Kelly is the second senior US official to visit Indonesia after Trade Representative Robert Zoellick met President Megawati Sukarnoputri last month. Ms Megawati starts a visit to the US on September 19.