Washington – The United States Under Secretary for Defense Paul Wolfowitz said here on Wednesday that the US government was very "disappointed" with the apparent lack of will to prosecute human rights abusers, particularly those from the Indonesian military (TNI), but added that it would be a mistake to paint the whole institution with the same brush.
Wolfowitz said that the US eagerly wanted to see the Indonesian military reform itself and to cease rewarding those who continued human rights abuses.
"Yes, we are all quite disappointed, frankly, with what seems a lack of vigor and energy in prosecuting some of the past abuses, most recently in the case of the actions in East Timor. But I also think it is a mistake to accuse the entire military indiscriminately," he said.
He added that he did not agree with a suggestion to cut off all US contact with the Indonesian military because that would not help the reform process."But I do think that we can have a useful, maybe a very important, at least useful positive influence in that process, and that is very much, I think, part of helping to strengthen democracy in Indonesia," he added.
Wolfowitz, who served as US ambassador to Jakarta in the early 1990s, noted that to create contacts with the Indonesian military was going to be a challenge to make sure that it assisted the forces of reform and did not let all human rights abusers in the past continue their abusive ways.
He said one of the major constitutional amendments made by Indonesian legislators was the acceleration of the departure of military representatives from the legislative assembly because it was a very healthy step and something that the US would certainly encourage." I think, if you bring an Indonesian officer to this country to participate in kinds of programs that we have officers from many nations participating in, they will learn a lot more about the role of the military in a democratic society than they will if they just stay within their narrow circle," he said.
But for the moment, he said, Washington seemed to prefer to only cooperate with the police, as evidenced by the US government's pledge to provide the Indonesian Police with some US$31 million for training and assistance through 2004.
He said some US$16 million would be extended to the police in fiscal year 2002 for additional capacity-building, including establishing a special counter-terrorism unit.
Meanwhile, if approved by Congress, in fiscal year 2003, the US government would like to provide some US$400,000 for the International Military Education and Training (IMET) for the Indonesian military, he said.
Washington and Jakarta are figuring out ways for the assistance to be used most effectively, he said. And, "We are also required by law to make sure that if we're assisting units, that those units be [evaluated] for human rights concerns. So it is not something where there is a plan ready to go but there are resources and we are trying to develop a plan," he added.
Regarding the military cooperation with Indonesia, he emphasized that the US would be more interested in restoring the IMET where training is much more focused on the institutions and structures of the military.
"In our system, that means institutions and structures of a democratic military, so there is a great deal about civil-military relations. There is a great deal about good leadership, ethical behavior," he explained.
Regarding how Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration is handling the terrorist issue in Indonesia, he said that according to the general feeling of his country, especially by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies of the US government, Indonesia is working fairly hard on it and is doing a decent job.