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US eases Indonesian army bans

July 20 2002
By Washington

With the United States courting Indonesia as a partner in its war on terrorism, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday to drop restrictions on military aid to Jakarta as it passed bills to fund foreign aid and other parts of the federal budget.

The committee's only significant dispute, as it disposed of bills to fund much of the government, arose over whether to provide $US400,000 ($A724,000) in military assistance to Indonesia, which Congress had previously withheld over charges of human rights abuses in East Timor by Indonesia's military.

Senators Daniel Inouye, a Hawaiian Democrat, and Alaska's Ted Stevens, a senior Appropriations Committee Republican, fought to lift the restrictions which they said sent the wrong message to the world's largest Muslim nation.

"It's not the amount, it's the symbol," Senator Inouye said, saying the ban ignored progress Jakarta had made since the fall of president Suharto in 1998.

The proposal comes as Indonesia, populated by an overwhelming Muslim majority, faces serious threats from radical groups, Senators Inouye and Stevens said.

"We can provide some of the training they need so their people can prevent some of the things that happened to us," Senator Stevens said.

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat who chairs the appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, fought against the change, saying Indonesia was responsible for massacres in East Timor, had forced children into prostitution, supported radical Muslim groups and engaged in drug trafficking and murder.

Senator Leahy said the United States channelled aid to Jakarta through other programs, but should not help its military. Reuters


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