Washington – Lawmakers have agreed to boost military aid to Indonesia and the Philippines, but some of the money would be contingent on human rights improvements.
They also decided to bar all but a small amount of military aid to Sri Lanka until the Bush administration has certified that the Sri Lankan government had made certain improvements in its human rights practices.
The provisions were part of a $500 billion-plus spending bill agreed negotiators from the Senate and the House of Representatives that will pay for most of the federal government's 2008 budget.
The overall bill has been delayed by disagreements between Congress and President George W. Bush over its size and allocation of financing for the Iraq war. The compromise still will need to be approved by the full House and Senate and sent to Bush for his signature before it takes effect.
Congress is expected this week to pass the bill, which includes $35 billion overall for the State Department and foreign aid programs.
The negotiators agreed to provide $15.7 million in direct military aid for Indonesia, matching the Bush administration's request for a country it sees as crucial to fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia.
The bill would delay approval, however, of $2.7 million of the money until US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has reported to Congress that Indonesia had devised plans to: account for past human rights violations by the Indonesian military, allow public access to Papua province, where a small separatist army seeks independence, and provide a deadline for completing a criminal investigation into the murder of Munir Said Thalib, a human rights activist and critic of Indonesia's military who was poisoned on an airline in 2004.
The United States eliminated military ties with Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, in 1999 to protest alleged rights abuses by Indonesian troops in breakaway East Timor. The ban was lifted in 2005 by the Bush administration, which views the Indonesian government as a bulwark against Islamic militancy.
Figures do not include small amounts allocated for training.
The Philippines would see its aid improve slightly from $29.7 million in 2007 to $30 million this year. Of that, $2 million of the money would be contingent on the country cracking down on extrajudicial killings by government agents.