The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
warned President Barack Obama against renewing any U.S. training for
Indonesia's notorious special forces.
"Training Kopassus will set back efforts to achieve accountability for
past and recent human rights violations and will do little or nothing to
discourage future crimes," said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of
ETAN. "This is a bad idea whose time has not come."
The Obama administration is considering resuming training of Kopassus
and may announce a change in policy when President Obama visits
Indonesia later this month.
"It's impossible to credit Kopassus with human rights reform when it
retains active duty soldiers convicted of human rights violations," said
Miller. These include soldiers convicted of killing West Papuan leader
Theys Eluay and the kidnapping and disappearances of Indonesian
activists in 1997 and 1998.
"For decades, the U.S. military provided training and other assistance
to Kopassus, despite the demonstrated failure of international
assistance to improve its behavior. Its widely acknowledged abuses and
criminal activity simply continued," he said.
"Restrictions on U.S. military assistance to Indonesia provide leverage
to support democracy and human rights in Indonesia. Working with
Kopassus, which has a long history of terrorizing civilians, will
undermine those fighting for justice and accountability in Indonesia and
East Timor," said Miller.
The initial offer of training is likely to involve
Kopassus Unit 81, which focuses on counter-terrorism. Unit 81 was
co-founded as Kopassus Group 5 by then-captain Prabowo Subianto, who
later admitted his involvement in the kidnapping of student activists in
the late 1990s. He recently ran for Vice President of Indonesia.
The U.S. has praised Indonesia's successes in fighting terrorism, but it
is the police - not the military - who have the major role.
"Greater Kopassus involvement in counter-terrorism will undercut police
and civilian primacy in this effort, while strengthening the military's
controversial internal territorial role. This will only undermine the
reforms that the U.S. claims to support," he said. 2011
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