[NYTr] Bush Regime Trains Members of Indonesian Terrorist Groups

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Unsurprisingly, the US Federal Government is back where it started in
the days of Nixon-Kissinger in Indonesia -- aiding, supplying and
training members of death squads There was a brief period in Indonesia
after the worst excesses of the Kissinger-approved coup and the horros
in East Timor, when some of this aid was, at least officially, cut off
over human rights abuses.  -NY Transfer]


sent by John M Miller - activ-l

Bush Administration Trains Members of Indonesian Terrorist Groups

Abandons Human Rights for Indonesia to Train Its Worst Military and
Police Units

Contact: John M. Miller (ETAN), (917) 690-4391
Ed McWilliams (WPAT), (703) 899-5285

December 19, 2007 - Human rights advocates have learned that the U.S. is
training members of Kopassus, the notorious Indonesian Special Forces
unit with a long record of human rights violations. The similarly-brutal
Brimob, the para-military mobile police brigade, is receiving training
as well.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and the West Papua
Advocacy Team (WPAT) today strongly condemned U.S. training for the two
units, saying that it undermines the little credibility the U.S. has
left in promoting human rights and accountability in Indonesia. ETAN
and WPAT urged Congress to intervene to prevent such training and
called on the administration to publicly pledge not to provide further
assistance to the two units.

"The Bush administration promised Congress that it would carefully
calibrate any security assistance to promote reform and human rights,"
said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN. "Getting in bed
again with Kopassus and Brimob promotes the opposite. Clearly, the
administration's moral gauges are in need of a major realignment."

"The Bush administration may see Kopassus and Brimob  the worst of the
worst among Indonesias security forces -- as allies against terrorism,
but, to most, they act like terrorist groups, regularly targeting
civilians for political ends," added Miller.

"Up until the present, Kopassus and Brimob have long histories of
violating human rights throughout Indonesia, notably in West Papua, in
East Timor and elsewhere," said Ed McWilliams of WPAT and former
Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta from 1996 to1999.
"There can be no doubt that Kopassus and Brimob will portray the
training as an exoneration by the U.S. Their many victims will shake
their heads in disbelief at the U.S. government claim that it is using
security assistance to promote human rights." In the past, Congress has
cut off military assistance for the Indonesian military specifically
because of the kind of brutality that Kopassus -- identifiable by their
red berets -- is known for.

"Assertions that the trainees were vetted for past human rights
violations before receiving International Military and Education
Training (IMET) or other training are pointless. They will bring the
experience gained by such training back to their units. This can
only make them more efficient at their villainous activities," added
McWilliams. He also noted that a 2005 Congressional study revealed that
vetting for IMET programs was ineffective. The State Department
continues to describe its defective vetting program as a "work in
progress."

Background

The poor human rights records of both Kopassus and Brimob are
well-documented by Amnesty International and other human rights
organizations. This week in the Consolidated Appropriations bill,
Congress again recognized the need to hold accountable those responsible
for past human rights violations in Indonesia and East Timor, many of
which involved Brimob and Kopassus. The bill also seeks to strengthen
U.S. law to prevent training of units that have committed gross
violations of human rights.

A covert Kopassus operations manual, found in the ashes of East Timor
after Indonesia withdrew in 1999, states that Kopassus personnel were to
be prepared in the "tactic and technique" of "terror" and "kidnapping."

Dr. Damien Kingsbury, an Australian expert on the Indonesian military,
has written that "Kopassus has murdered and tortured political
activists, trade unionists and human rights workers. It has also
trained, equipped and led militias in East Timor, West Papua and
Aceh, and Kopassus members trained the notorious Laskar Jihad Islamic
militia, which stepped up conflict in the Ambon region, leaving up to
10,000 dead. It was Kopassus that murdered Papuan independence leader
Theys Eluay in 2001." Kopassus was also involved in the 1998 killing of
students and the kidnapping of pro-democracy activists in Jakarta.

Major General Sunarko, the current commander of Kopassus, was stationed
in East Timor in 1996 and 1997 and again in 1999, where he was
Intelligence Assistant to the Kopassus Commander. Kopassus played a key
role in organizing the militia in East Timor at that time.

Current Brimob Commander Police General Inspector Sylvanus Wenas was
accused, along with others, of gross violations of human rights in an
attack on a student hostel in Abepura, West Papua, in 2000. Several
times this year, Brimob attacked the Kingmi Church in Jayapura, West
Papua.

A report commissioned by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights states that Brimob officers committed most of the
violations of human rights by police in East Timor in 1999. Brimob was
involved in massacres in Liquiga in April and at the Suai cathedral in
September and an attack on the UN compound in early September.

In all cases, senior Kopassus and Brimob personnel have not been brought
to justice.

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Read what Noam Chomsky says about ETAN:
http://www.etan.org/etan/2007appl.htm
John M. Miller         etan at igc.org
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
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