The Australian government's support for closer military ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), including the Kopassus special forces, is a discredited form of interference in Indonesian politics and society, according to a number of non-government organisations.

By restarting cooperation with Kopassus, the Howard government is helping drag Indonesia back to the past; it is interfering in Indonesian politics on the side of the most militaristic and anti-democratic groups. It is helping Jakarta to defeat the movements for genuine democracy and social justice, begun with the overthrow of Suharto in 1998.

Military ties were scaled back following the post-ballot carnage in East Timor in 1999 by the TNI and its militia proxies. US military ties were cut back, and restrictions placed on the sale of military hardware to Indonesia by the US, Britain and some European countries. Low-level Indonesian officer training continued in Australia, with joint military exercises involving US forces taking place over the last few years.

The Howard government's pretext of "fighting terrorism" has conveniently replaced the old, and now thoroughly discredited, justification of training Indonesian troops to improve the TNI's human rights record. As former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans himself stated last year: "I am one of those who has to acknowledge, as Australia's foreign minister at the time, that many of our earlier training efforts helped only to produce more professional human rights abusers".

However, "fighting terrorism" is an equally false pretext. Aiding and abetting Kopassus will bolster the most terroristic elements in Indonesian society,against the vast majority of Indonesian people who rejected the "New Order" regime of Suharto and deeply distrust the military.

Already, the Howard government's unqualified support for a "military solution" in Aceh and West Papua has shown its determination to back those political forces in Indonesia resisting change towards full democracy.

Since the beginning of 2003, the National Human Rights Commission and other human rights organisations, prominent intellectuals and researchers, and some of Indonesia's most prominent writers and artists, have called on the Megawati government to halt military operations in Aceh. There have been public meetings, rallies, prayer vigils and peace concerts all reflecting such views.

President Megawati, backed by the TNI, along with Suharto's old party Golkar and the conservative Islamic party that Suharto created, the United Development Party, do not represent the democratic future of Indonesia. The Indonesian Defence White Paper, published earlier this year, argues that Indonesia faces no external threat. It can thus be fairly assumed that any military assistance from the West will be used against the peoples of the Indonesian archipelago.

Terrorism in Indonesia, and elsewhere, can only really be tackled by reducing the inequalities between the impoverished majority and a tiny elite, and by ending the reliance on the old Suharto methods of violence, repression, and intrigues by the military and intelligence agencies – what Indonesians call the "security approach".

Canberra must end its "special relationship" with the Indonesian elite. It should build one with the democratic forces, including non-government organisations, across Indonesia.

Ending all military ties would send a clear message that Australia does not support this militaristic policy which is unlikely to solve the complex range of issues currently facing the peoples of Indonesia.

Signed:

• Max Lane – Visiting Fellow, Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University;
• Arthur Chesterfield-Evans – MLC, NSW Parliamentary Leader, Australian Democrats;
• Dr Damien Kingsbury – Senior Lecturer, International Development, Head, Philosophical, Political and International Studies Deakin University;
• Tim O'Connor – AidWatch Sydney;
• Pip Hinman – Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific;
• Maire Leadbeater – Indonesian Human Rights Committee, New Zealand;
• Marie McKern
• Eliza Bergin
• Glenn Osboldstone
• Tom O'Lincoln

Send your protest to Senator Robert Hill on at minister@cbr.defence.gov.au