Asia Sentinel
Friday, 23 July 2010
Kopassus Reinstatement Stirs Outrage
Written by Our Correspondent
US gives a conditional okay to Indonesia's
ill-starred and murderous special forces unit
Human rights organizations across Asia and the world are reacting with
disappointment and anger over the July 22 decision, announced in Jakarta by US
Secretary of Defense Robert M Gates, to lift his agency's decade-old ban on
cooperation with the Army's elite Kopassus special forces unit, which has been
accused of widespread terrorism against foes of the Indonesian government.
The ban was instituted in 1999 in the wake of charges that Kopassus had taken
part in extensive human rights abuses as the Suharto regime teetered on its
last legs. There is considerable speculation that the Indonesian government,
which has been seeking reinstatement of Kopassus's status for several years,
was threatening to seek tie-ups with the Chinese military for training and
assistance if the Americans didn't do it.
Eyewitnesses have accused Kopassus of being involved in or even supervising
riots in Jakarta in May of 1998, including the mass gang rape of ethnic Chinese
women amid serious racial tension between Indonesians and the Chinese minority.
Prabowo Subianto, the now-divorced son-in-law of the strongman Suharto,
commanded the Kopassus from 1995 through 1998 and was accused of involvement in
various "riots, plunderings, rapes and murders" by various human rights
organizations over his attempts to keep East Timor from seceding. Nonetheless,
Prabowo survived to become a businessman and politician to run as vice
president in 2009 national elections with Wiranto, another army general who was
widely accused of human rights violations.
Kopassus soldiers were also accused of abducting student activists during the
1998 crisis. Four Kopassus soldiers were convicted of the strangulation killing
of Thuys Eluay, the former chairman of the Papuan Presidium Council in 2001.
Two received light prison sentences of three and a half years and two others
received three years and none were discharged from the service. Indonesian
human rights organizations say the unit has continued to commit abuses in
Papua, which continues to have a strong breakaway movement.
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), where separatists bore the
brunt of Kopassus suppression during East Timor's 1999 secession from
Indonesia, condemned the Obama administration's decision. John M. Miller, the
national coordinator for ETAN, said that: "Slipping back into bed with Kopassus
is a betrayal of the brutal unit's many victims in Timor-Leste, West Papua and
throughout Indonesia. It will lead to more people to suffer abuses. Working
with Kopassus, which remains unrepentant about its long history of terrorizing
civilians, will undermine efforts to achieve justice and accountability for
human rights crimes in Indonesia and Timor-Leste (East Timor)."
Amnesty International, in a statement from Washington, DC, said the
reinstatement "sends the wrong message in a country where mass and severe human
rights violations have taken place in an atmosphere of impunity. US support to
this unit undercuts the recent efforts advocating reform within the Indonesian
military." The human rights organization called on the Obama administration "to
make public what commitments they received from the Indonesian authorities
about bringing Kopassus military leaders to justice and also calls upon
President Obama, in his upcoming visit to Indonesia, to speak publicly about
human rights abuses in Indonesia and to meet the families of those killed by
the Kopassus."
Human Rights watch, in a statement issued in New York, said "The Obama
administration's decision to lift a more than decade-long ban on US military
assistance to Indonesia's abusive Special Forces seriously undermines its
commitment to promoting respect for human rights in Indonesia and weakens US
standards for military cooperation globally. Kopassus has been responsible for
numerous serious human rights abuses - including killings, enforced
disappearances, and torture - since the 1990s. The Indonesian government's
failure to remove Kopassus soldiers convicted of serious abuses from the
military, and its recent appointment of officers credibly linked with abuses to
leadership posts within Kopassus and the Defense Ministry made repealing the
ban particularly inappropriate."
US Sen. Patrick Leahy, the author of the law that bans US support to foreign
militaries that violate human rights, said Kopassus "remains unrepentant,
essentially unreformed and unaccountable," adding that "I deeply regret that
before starting down the road of re-engagement, our country did not obtain and
Kopassus did not accept the necessary reforms we have long sought."
Nonetheless, Gates defended the decision, saying: "The United States will begin
a measured and gradual program of security cooperation activities with the
Indonesian Army Special Forces," during a news conference after meeting
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. He added that the decision was made as "a
result of Indonesian military reforms over the past decade, the ongoing
professionalization of Tentara Nasional Indonesia, the Indonesian Armed Forces,
and recent actions taken by the Ministry of Defense to address human rights
issues." "I understand there's been a dramatically declining number of
violations of human rights," Gates said, adding that the US government was
"responding to the progress." The initial stages, Gates said, could include
allowing Kopassus to participate in select conferences and events involving
non-lethal subjects like rule of law, human rights and the military
decision-making process. "I noted to the president that these initial
steps will take place within the limits of US law and do not signal any
lessening of the importance we place on human rights and accountability," the
defense secretary said. "Our ability to expand upon these initial steps will
depend on continued implementation of reforms within Kopassus and TNI as a
whole," Gates said.
The officials said that the Defense Department is not seeking funding from
Congress for the renewed engagement with Kopassus. The US State Department
would be in charge of vetting individual members of Kopassus before allowing
them to participate in training with the American military.
Leahy, who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that authorizes funding
for foreign operations, was relieved that Gates did not announce full-fledged
cooperation. "A conditional toe in the water is wiser at this stage than diving
in," Leahy said. "We're going in with our eyes open," State Department
spokesman Philip Crowley said. "Kopassus has a dark past. We recognize that.
We're going to be insisting that Indonesia live up to its stated commitments."
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