Military Aid to Indonesia Revived in War on Terror

In a bid to prevent the world’s most populous Muslim country from becoming a thriving haven for extremists, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell announced Friday that the United States will begin restoring military ties and provide more than $50 million to improve Indonesia’s ability to wage war on terrorism.

The two measures will open a new chapter in U.S.-Indonesian relations after a decade of restricted contact and aid. They are also a major boon to a country vulnerable to Islamic militancy in a region, Southeast Asia, known as the second front in the war on terrorism.

“Indonesia has got a threat, the United States has a threat, and we all need to work jointly against these kinds of organizations and these sorts of individuals,” Powell said at a news conference here during an eight-nation Asia swing.

Indonesia gained new importance after Sept. 11, since extremist groups based here were found to have ties with Al Qaeda. Some cells plotting against U.S. targets in Singapore, Malaysia and elsewhere in the region have been uncovered over the last eight months. And several fugitives linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network or local extremist cells are now hiding in Indonesia, according to U.S. and Asian officials.

Indonesia has also been the most lax nation in the region in moving against Islamic militants. Just a day before Powell’s arrival, the head of a leading militant group was put on trial on charges of inciting hatred--only to have the judge postpone the trial because the defendant looked ashen. Jafar Umar Thalib, a radical cleric who heads the paramilitary group Laskar Jihad, was released pending the resumption of prosecution.

But Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirajuda told reporters Friday: “The fact is that Indonesia is not Afghanistan, and we do not believe that Indonesia will become the future Afghanistan.... Indonesian Muslims are very moderate ones.”

The Bush administration has also opted to begin normalizing military contacts despite the fact that the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri has not yet complied with a U.S. congressional mandate to account for past military abuses.

Washington scaled back military ties in 1992 because of Jakarta’s repressive tactics in East Timor, a territory it had annexed. All connections were severed in 1999 after Indonesian militias backed by the army allegedly engaged in atrocities when East Timor voted for independence. Indonesia, which has been undergoing a turbulent transition to democracy since 1998, has not charged or put on trial most of the military officials associated with that period.

Nevertheless, the United States will provide more than $50 million over the next two years to beef up Indonesia’s counter-terrorism forces and capability, Powell said.

The U.S. is getting around congressional restrictions on providing aid to the army by channeling most of the funds to Indonesia’s fledgling police force, which was recently carved out of the military.

About $47 million will go to training the police, with $16 million of that devoted to the creation of a special counter-terrorism unit. Other funds will be used to help secure the borders of this nation of more than 13,000 islands.

But Washington has also allocated $4 million to Indonesia’s military for “fellowships” in counter-terrorism, with an additional $400,000 for military training pending congressional approval.

“As a result of the leadership shown by President Megawati, we are able now to start down a road toward greater military-to-military cooperation and more work with your police forces, as you deal with those elements within every society these days that are determined not to respect the rights of people, not to respect democracy, but to undertake terrorism as a way of pushing their evil agenda,” Powell told a joint news conference with Wirajuda.

Powell cautioned that Congress would be “watching carefully” and would still expect action to be taken against past rights violators.

“We are not at the end of the road yet, but I think it’s a very strong and positive start,” Powell said.

The deepening American involvement in Indonesia underscores some of the challenges faced by the United States in its war on terrorism--and some of the compromises being made, especially in the realm of human rights.

A State Department survey this year reported that Indonesia’s human rights record was “poor” and that “serious abuses” were ongoing. The 275,000-strong armed forces were continuing to engage in shootings of civilians, torture, rape, beatings and other abuses and “are not fully accountable to civilian authority,” the report alleged.

Powell has insisted during his tour through Asia that the United States has no intention of compromising on human rights in the name of fighting extremism.

“If we’re going to defeat the terrorists, then we’re going to have to attack them from the highest moral plane, and human rights must be protected,” he said in Brunei on Thursday.

But in a warning to Powell this week, the monitoring group Human Rights Watch reported “widespread allegations that elements of the Indonesian armed forces helped create and train radical Indonesian Muslim organizations.”

“Until the Indonesian armed forces demonstrate a commitment to accountability and civilian control, they will be an unreliable partner in fighting terrorism,” said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of the group’s Asia division.

In the Philippines, the last stop of his Asian tour, Powell said today that the heightened U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia did not signal an intent to reestablish permanent military bases.

“The United States is not interested in returning to the Philippines with bases,” he said. U.S. troops were stationed at Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station in the Philippines for decades after World War II.

About 1,000 U.S. troops just concluded a six-month stint to help the Philippines deal with the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf.