Jakarta – Human rights groups criticized US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday for restoring full military ties with Indonesia, saying the army remains a threat to the country's young democracy.

"The (Indonesian armed forces) remains a largely rogue institution which commits human rights violations without concern for the law," said a statement issued jointly in Washington D.C. by four nongovernmental groups.

The military was the main pillar of the 32-year dictatorship of former strongman Suharto, who was ousted amid massive pro-democracy street protests in 1998.

The United States cut all military ties with Indonesia the next year after the army and its militia proxies devastated East Timor during its break from Jakarta.

Last November, however, Rice waived all restrictions on military assistance, citing cooperation by the world's largest majority Muslim nation in the war on terror.

Washington said that continuing to isolate the Indonesian military was no longer in its strategic interest.

"The administration's abandonment of congressionally imposed restrictions... rewards and encourages continued human rights violations, impunity, and corruption, thus undermining Indonesian democracy," the statement said.