Murray Hiebert, Washington – The US has taken a key step that lets it restore, at least for this year, a military assistance program with the Indonesia military that had been curbed for 13 years because of American concerns about human-rights violations.
On Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certified to the US Congress that Jakarta is cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the killing of two American school teachers in the province of Papua in 2002. A preliminary Indonesian police report in 2003 concluded there was a "strong possibility" the attack was mounted by elements of the Indonesian military.
In a statement Saturday, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Ms. Rice had "determined that Indonesia has satisfied legislative conditions for restarting its full International Military Education and Training program."
Congress had stipulated that it receive certification that Jakarta was helping the FBI before the US government could spend a relatively small $600,000 on the training of Indonesian officers this year under the program called IMET.
Washington moved to ban military training in 1992, shortly after Indonesian troops killed more than 50 pro-independence demonstrators in then Indonesian-controlled East Timor.
Allegations of other human-rights abuses by the military in rebellious Aceh province hurt the case for lifting the ban, which became an irritant in US-Indonesian relations. In recent months, US President Bush's administration has been pushing to end the ban.
"The amount of money is not the point," said a US official who works on policy on Asia. "It's more a symbolic thing" that the US wants to resume normal ties with Southeast Asia's largest country which has played a key role in the battle against terrorism, the official said.
Patsy Spier, widow of one of the teachers killed in the 2002 attack, and US Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont have called on Washington to maintain the ban on military training until the investigation into the killing has been completed. The US Justice Department last June announced the indictment of Antonius Wamong, a leader of the separatist Free Papua Movement, in the attack, but he hasn't been arrested.
In her confirmation hearing in January, Ms. Rice said resuming military training was in the US interest because it would strengthen the professionalism of Indonesian military officers and increase their understanding of public accountability and human rights.