Greetings,

The struggle for control of human rights violations by the Indonesian
government continues. NIHAC has signed on to this letter urging a stop to
military aid to Indonesia until this problem is addressed. Details below.

Mary Anne Mercer


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 11:09:47 -0400
From: Karen Orenstein <etanorganize@...>
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Subject: NGO letter sign-on request

Dear Colleagues -

We are writing to request your signature on an important letter
concerning U.S. military assistance to Indonesia. Under the leadership
of Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), the House version of the Foreign Operations
appropriations bill contains absolutely no restrictions on military
assistance for Indonesia. The Senate version, however, maintains most
restrictions. It is crucial that the Senate version of
Indonesia-related provisions prevails during the conference committee to
reconcile differences between House and Senate versions of the bill. The
letter is addressed to Kolbe and the other chair and ranking members of
the House and Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Committees.

For well over a decade, Congress has restricted military assistance to
the brutal Indonesian military to varying degrees. The Bush
administration has pushed extra hard this past year to see these
restrictions removed, with their allies in Congress working to do their
bidding.

We can stop them. While Indonesia now has a democratically-elected
president, the military continues to violate human rights and evade
accountability for serious crimes, including crimes against humanity, in
East Timor and elsewhere. The success of the recent peace agreement in
Aceh largely depends on the cooperation of Indonesia's corrupt and
abusive military. This is make-or-break time for Indonesia, and we are
flexing whatever political muscle we have to influence the process in
favor of human rights, dignity, and justice for the people of East Timor
and Indonesia. Please join this fight by adding your organization's
support for the following NGO letter.
Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and Amnesty International have
already joined ETAN in signing the letter.

The deadline for signatures is Friday, September 9. Please note that
while we appreciate individual activists' support, this letter is only
open to signatures from organizations that have a U.S.-based presence.
Please include the name and title of the person signing on behalf of
your group.

For further background, please read the text of the letter. Also, feel
free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Please pass this letter on to like-minded organizations.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

In solidarity,

Karen Orenstein, ETAN
karen@...



PO Box 15774, Washington, DC 20003, 202-544-6911 (tel.)

Dear:

As a member of the Conference Committee reconciling the Senate and House
versions of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related
Programs Appropriations bill, 2006, we urge you to actively support the
inclusion in final law of the following Senate provisions: Indonesia,
Section 6072; Report on Indonesian Cooperation, Section 6108; and West
Papua Report, Section 6109.

In spite of progress toward democracy in Indonesia, there has been
little improvement within Indonesia's armed forces (TNI), and soldiers
continue to commit abuses with impunity. Indonesia, Section 6072,
provides conditions on foreign military financing (FMF) and export
licenses for lethal defense articles for the Indonesian armed forces.
This provision should remain until the TNI has implemented reforms which
increase the transparency and accountability of their operations and
financial management, and until the Indonesian government is prosecuting
and punishing members of the armed forces alleged to have committed
gross violations of human rights in East Timor and elsewhere, including
cooperation with international efforts to do so. These Congressional
conditions are not new, and they have yet to be met.

Congress must maintain a consistent posture towards the Indonesian
military or forfeit its leverage for reform. An all carrot-no stick
approach would only undermine efforts to strengthen civilian control of
the TNI and pursue judicial accountability for victims of human rights
violations. The defense minister still does not have the ability to
appoint, discipline, or remove officers. TNI officers and soldiers who
commit human rights violations continue to remain largely beyond the
reach of the law. Officers involved in gross violations of human rights,
including some indicted for crimes against humanity, continue to receive
promotions and occupy key positions.

The Senate provision, Report on Indonesian Cooperation, Section 6108,
would require a detailed report prior to the release of IMET for
Indonesia from the Secretary of State on U.S. and Indonesian efforts to
bring to justice those responsible for the ambush and murder of two U.S.
citizens and an Indonesian in Papua in August 2002. This provision would
at least maintain some legislative pressure in this case. The West
Papua Report, Section 6109, would provide vital, yet underreported,
information on the conflicts and humanitarian and human rights
conditions in Papua and Aceh crucial to informed policymaking on Indonesia.


Recent setbacks in military reform and accountability make maintaining
restrictions on FMF and export lethal equipment essential:

* New military commands have been created, expanding the
territorial system that challenges civilian control down to the local
level. Military officers are allowed to occupy a number of key civilian
positions, and soldiers may now take temporary leave to run in
Indonesia's first direct election of local officials.

* The recently released report of the UN Commission of Experts
called Indonesia's ad-hoc court on East Timor "manifestly inadequate"
with "scant respect for or conformity to relevant international
standards." The report discusses international options for bringing to
justice major perpetrators of serious crimes committed during
Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, making this an especially crucial
time to maintain U.S. pressure to ensure accountability for crimes
against humanity. Accountability is essential not just for victims in
East Timor, but also for addressing impunity throughout Indonesia. An
appeals court in July overturned all convictions in the first test-case
of accountability for Suharto-era crimes, the 1984 Tanjung Priok
massacre that left at least 33 civilians dead.
* A peace agreement in Aceh is now in its very earliest stages of
implementation. Crucial to the success of that agreement is the
readiness of the TNI to obey a presidential call for an end to offensive
military operations and fulfillment of a government commitment to
sharply reduce the military presence in Aceh. International pressure is
essential to ensure that the TNI fulfills its pledge, so as to avoid a
repeat of past failures to end this long-running conflict.

* Attacks on human rights defenders continue. At least 15 have
been killed since 2000 with no one held accountable. The police
investigation into last year's poisoning and murder of leading human
rights defender Munir has stalled in the face of obstruction from the
national intelligence agency, which is largely run by retired generals.

* The military continues to control a vast network of legal and
illegal businesses. Financial transparency is crucial to effective
tsunami relief and reconstruction in Aceh, where the military has
traditionally controlled large sectors of the economy, such as logging
and construction.

* Indonesian security forces have assisted and cooperated with
armed militia groups in Indonesia, including Laskar Jihad. These militia
have exacerbated communal conflict that has led to thousands of deaths
since 1999.

* Under Indonesian President Yudhoyono, human rights and
humanitarian violations continue in Papua, where military operations in
the Central Highlands have displaced thousands of residents.

In July 2005 Indonesia's Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono stated that
U.S treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo was more severe than that which
occurred in East Timor in 1999. His statement indicates that even the
reform wings of the military and government still do not accept
responsibility for the scorched earth campaign in East Timor. It is
unreasonable to expect the TNI not to misuse U.S. assistance if the next
human rights abuses are deemed to be in the so-called national interest.

Counter-terror cooperation is not a justification for resumption of FMF
and export of lethal equipment. The military should not be the key
interlocutor for such endeavors. That role should be for the police -
the agency that successfully investigated the perpetrators of the
October 2002 Bali bombing and other attacks. The police have long been
marginalized by the military. The U.S. government continues to provide
millions of dollars in police counterterrorism training. Moreover, the
U.S. government already has numerous options available to engage with
the Indonesian government, including the military, on counterterrorism.
For example, the TNI has been the world's largest beneficiary of
millions of dollars worth of unrestricted counterterrorism training
under the Pentagon's Regional Defense Counterterrorism Fellowship Program.

In recent years, Indonesia has taken a number of crucial steps toward
democratic reform. But the TNI remains a substantial obstacle to further
change. Legislated restrictions on military assistance for Indonesia
are critical to bolster reform of the Indonesian military, as well as an
important expression of U.S. government support for democracy, human
rights, and respect for rule-of-law in Indonesia and East Timor.

In the final Appropriations Act, we urge you to ensure the inclusion of
the following Senate provisions: Indonesia, Section 6072, restricting
FMF and export licenses of lethal defense articles for the Indonesian
military; Report on Indonesian Cooperation, Section 6108, regarding the
murder of Americans in Papua; and West Papua Report, Section 6109,
relating to the humanitarian and human rights conditions in Aceh and Papua.

Thank you for your serious consideration of these most important matters.

Sincerely,




--
Karen Orenstein
Washington Coordinator
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
202-544-6911 (t/f), www.etan.org