Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – Indonesia denied Saturday that any of its security forces trained in the United States had a history of human rights violations, as alleged in a report released by a US congressional investigative office.

The Government Accountability Office said in the report issued Friday that military trainers violated US law by instructing 6,900 Indonesian, Filipino and Thai police without determining beforehand whether they had a history of human rights violations.

The Southeast Asian police were trained by the US Justice Department with State Department law enforcement assistance between 2001 and 2004 at a cost of $265.7 million, the report said.

Among the 4,000 Indonesians trained in civil-military relations and human rights issues were 32 trainees "from a notorious special-forces police unit previously prohibited under State (Department) policy from receiving US training funds because of the unit's prior human rights abuses," the report said.

But Indonesia's National Police Spokesman Brig. Gen. Sunarko Danu Artanto said the report was the work of forces aimed at derailing efforts to reform his department. The police have received massive US training in recent years because of a long-standing US ban on providing assistance to the military.

"We deeply regret such accusations which are blown up by some parties who do not want to see our personnel become professional," Artanto said, adding that none of the officers trained had human rights violations. "Indonesia needs professional security forces to fight against global crime and terrorism acts. We have always carried out our duties with respect to human rights."

But rights activists say the report was not surprising and reaffirms their concerns that the United States is moving too quickly to normalize ties with Indonesia's historically corrupt and abusive security forces.

"We recognize that police need professional training, but it should be given for only selected officers with a clean human rights record," said Usman Hamid, a human rights activist. "From our past experience, we have seen that there is no accountability or justice in this country for human rights."