US senators voted down an attempt to limit US military training for Indonesia, triggering outrage from campaigners striving to bring East Timor war crimes suspects to justice.
The Senate voted 61-36 to reject an amendment to omnibus spending bills that would have restricted a program for Indonesian military officers to come to the United States for training and education.
Budget bills for 2003 still making their way through Congress would restore the program over the objections of legislators and rights campaigners who say Jakarta must act first on war crimes trials.
Military cooperation was sharply cut in 1999 when Congress passed the so-called Leahy Amendment following Indonesian-backed violence in East Timor.
All military aid was suspended until certain conditions are met, including effective measures to bring to justice members of the armed forces and militia groups suspected of rights abuses.
Members of the Indonesia armed forces were implicated in rights abuses when pro-Jakarta militias went on the rampage after East Timor voted for independence in 1999.
"Today's Senate floor vote against an amendment offered by Senator Russ Feingold to restrict [the training] for Indonesia is an outrage which jeopardizes the rights of Indonesians, East Timorese and Americans living in Indonesia," said Karen Orenstein, Washington Coordinator of the East Timor Action Network.
"The Indonesian military has sabotaged international efforts to attain justice for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor. The senators who voted against the amendment have effectively given US backing to continued gross human rights violations."
Members of the Bush administration have argued the United States must resume training Jakarta's armed forces to help them crack down on Islamic militias with alleged links to al-Qaeda following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Congress first voted to restrict the program after the November 1991 Santa Cruz massacre of more than 270 civilians in East Timor. All military ties were severed in September 1999 after the militia rampage.