From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: US MILITARY TRAINING FOR INDONESIA: BACKGROUND AND ALERT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 00:32:45 GMT

/** reg.easttimor: 357.0 **/
** Topic: IMET alert, articles **
** Written  2:33 am  Sep 28, 1992 by cscheiner in cdp:reg.easttimor **
THE U.S. MILITARY TRAINING FOR INDONESIA CONTROVERSY
BACKGROUND AND ACTION ALERT   September 28, 1992

On September 23, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, on a 15-12 vote, 
conditionally approved $2.3 million in IMET military training for Indonesia 
as part of the Foreign Aid Appropriations bill. They adopted the "Inouye 
conditions" and rejected the stronger "Leahy conditions."

Since the House of Representatives had previously unconditionally cut off 
this program (which is the only direct U.S. military aid program for 
Indonesia), a conference committee of both houses must reconcile the two 
versions. If a strong human rights lobbying campaign continues, the final 
result may be similar to the stronger conditions. ETAN/US spent most of our 
efforts contacting Senators on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, and they 
voted 8-5 for Leahy.

In the next week, we need to step up efforts on all conference committee 
members, to counter the efforts of the Indonesian government and their 
corporate emissaries. For more information, contact the East Timor Action 
Network/U.S. We have produced Action Alerts with more background information.

This collection of documents includes the following:
*       The Inouye conditions as approved by the Senate.
*       The Leahy conditions that were voted down by a small margin.
*       Lists of members of the Conference Committee and how to reach them.
*       An editorial from the Charleston Gazette
*       A letter from an American academic Indonesia expert
*       An editorial from the Wall Street Journal, and Leahy's response.
----------
INOUYE CONDITIONS, AS APPROVED IN THE SENATE:

... none of the funds appropriated under this heading may be made available 
for Indonesia unless the Secretary of State certifies to the Committee on 
Appropriations that:

(1)     special emphasis is being placed on education of Indonesian military 
personnel that will foster greater awareness of and respect for human rights 
and that will improve military justice systems;

(2)     special emphasis is also being placed on education of civilian and 
military personnel that will foster greater understanding of the principle 
of civilian control of the military, and

(3)     the Secretary of State will use all available and appropriate means to 
ensure there is progress on the East Timor situation, such as the full 
availability of legal remedies under Indonesian law to all civilians 
convicted in connection with the November 1991 East Timor incident, 
increased access for human rights groups to East Timor, and constructive 
cooperation with the United Nations Secretary General's efforts to promote 
dialogue between Indonesia and Portugal to resolve issues concerning East 
Timor;

Provided further, That the certification required by the preceding proviso 
shall be submitted not later than December 15, 1992.

----------

LEAHY CONDITIONS THAT WERE REJECTED BUT COULD BE SALVAGED

[none of the IMET funds for Indonesia may be made available until the 
President certifies that]

(1)      the Government of Indonesia has published a list of names of all those 
killed and missing as a result of the November 12 massacre and indicated 
what steps are being taken to determine the identity of those responsible 
for disposal of bodies;

(2)      the Government of Indonesia has identified all military personnel who 
were responsible for ordering, authorizing, or initiating the shooting of 
demonstrators at Santa Cruz, East Timor, and is taking steps to bring them 
to justice;

(3)      the Government of Indonesia has undertaken to review the sentences of 
all East Timorese civilians convicted in connection with the November 1991 
demonstrations in Dili and Jakarta for the purpose of their commutation, 
reduction, or remission;

(4)      observers representing international human rights organizations are 
being permitted access to East Timor.

In the event the President makes this determination and certification, not 
less than 50% of any such IMET that is made available for Indonesia shall be 
for "expanded IMET" programs.

-------------

MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE-SENATE CONFERENCE COMMITTEE:

DC address: All Senators are Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510.  
All representatives are House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515. Any 
without phone numbers can be reached through the Capitol switchboard at 
(202)224-3121. All fax and phone numbers listed are area code 202.

The first column is how Senators voted.  Y=Leahy, N=Inouye, A=absent.

Conference Committee Senators:
  Name                    St.  DC addr      fax      phone    staffer
Y Patrick J. Leahy, chair VT D 433 Russell  224-7914 224-7209 Tim Rieser
Y Dennis DeConcini        AZ D 328 Hart     224-8698 224-4521
N Daniel K. Inouye        HI D 722 Hart     224-6747 224-3934
Y Tom Harkin              IA D 531 Hart     224-9369 224-3254 Jim Sweeney
N J. Bennett Johnston     LA D 136 Hart              224-5824
Y Barbara A. Mikulski     MD D 320 Hart              224-4654
N Warren B. Rudman        NH R 530 Hart              224-3324
Y Frank R. Lautenberg     NJ D 506 Hart     224-9707 224-4744
Y Alfonse M. D'Amato      NY R 520 Hart     224-5871 224-6542 Greg Rickman
N Don Nickles             OK R 713 Hart              224-5754
Y Mark O. Hatfield        OR R 711 Hart     224-0276 224-3753
Y Arlen Specter           PA R 303 Hart     224-9029 224-4254
N Robert W. Kasten, rank  WI R 110 Hart              224-5323
        Conference Committee Representatives:
David R. Obey, chairman   WI D 2462 Rayburn 226-7922 225-2041 Bill Schuerch
Sidney R. Yates           IL D 2109 Rayburn 225-3493 225-2111
Matthew F. McHugh         NY D 2335 Rayburn 225-1799 225-6335
William Lehman            FL D 2347 Rayburn
Charles Wilson            TX D 2256 Rayburn 225-1764 225-2401
Lawrence J. Smith         FL R 113 Cannon            225-7931
Peter J. Visclosky        IN D 330 Cannon            225-2461
Bill Alexander            AR D 233 Cannon   225-6182 225-4076
Mickey Edwards, rank      OK R 2330 Rayburn          225-2132
John Edward Porter        IL R 1026 Lngwrth 225-0157 225-4835
Bill Green                NY R 2301 Rayburn 225-0840 225-2436
Bob Livingston            LA R 2368 Rayburn 225-0739 225-3015

        Senators on Appropriations but not on conference committee
N Ted Stevens             AK R
Y Wyche Fowler, Jr.       GA D
N Thad Cochran            MS R
N Christopher S. Bond     MO R
N J. Robert Kerrey        NE D
N Harry Reid              NV D
N Pete V. Domenici        NM R
N Ernest F. Hollings      SC D
N Phil Gramm              TX R
N Jake Garn               UT R
N Slade Gorton            WA R
Y Brock Adams             WA D
Y Robert C. Byrd          WV D
A Dale Bumpers            AR D
A Kent Conrad             ND D
Y Jim Sasser              TN D

--------------------

Editorial in the Charleston Gazette (the principal newspaper in West 
Virginia), 9/23/92:

Death - Made in USA

During the Cold War, America armed any cruel dictatorship that could be 
called an "ally" against communism. Predictably, the despots often used the 
U.S. guns to kill their own people.

A slightly different scenario happened in the southwest Pacific. Muslim 
Indonesia used its American weapons to seize Catholic East Timor and kill 
200,000 Timorese.

(When Iraq seized Kuwait, President Bush said America wouldn't tolerate such 
outrages, and he mobilized an allied war against Iraq. But the White House 
hardly muttered when Indonesia did the same to its island neighbor.)

The U.N. Security Council ordered Indonesia to withdraw, but it refused. 
Ever since, the White House has continued arming and training Indonesians. 
This year, America will sell them $70 million worth of weaponry, and will 
spend $2.3 million on Indonesia in the International Military Education and 
Training program.

Church and human rights groups urged Congress to halt the IMET money for 
Indonesia. In June, the House voted to eliminate the funds. Now the matter 
is before Sen. Robert C. Byrd's Senate Appropriations Committee.

We hope Byrd heeds the humanitarians. Why should America continue arming and 
training killers?

------- 

This  letter was sent to Senators on the Appropriations Committee by an 
American professor. In order to preserve his future access to the country, 
name and identifying details have been removed.

                                                     23 September 1992

My regional specialty is Southeast Asia, and my country specialty is 
Indonesia. I have lived in Indonesia and conducted research there for 
extended periods during the last decade. Through direct contact with top 
government officials, the leadership of the armed forces, and leading 
business interests (both foreign and domestic), I have built up a 
considerable base of experience.

It is clear that a massive campaign has been launched by the Indonesian 
government to make sure that the $2.3 million in military training not be 
cut this year. Indeed, the campaign is decidedly out of proportion to the 
level of funds in question. What matters both here in the U.S. and in 
Indonesia is the symbolic nature of your vote on this issue. If this paltry 
sum of money is suspended, it will be the first signal from the U.S. 
government in 17 years that Indonesia's policy in East Timor is unacceptable.

I am aware that an unusual array of forces has been assembled to lobby on 
behalf of the Indonesian government. A high U.S. military official phoned 
Senator Hatfield, for instance. Companies such as AT&T, GE, and Freeport 
have been prodded by the Indonesian government to contact you. They have 
been issued threats, it is said, that if they do not do their very best to 
get IMET reinstated, they might no longer be welcome to do business in 
Indonesia.

Two issues are important here. First, this largely symbolic vote on IMET 
does not imply a major reorientation of U.S. policy toward Indonesia. The 
U.S. relationship with Indonesia is sound, and there is no need to fear a 
major backlash from Jakarta. The Indonesians depend on the U.S. to 
counter-balance the threats and influences from Japan and China. This is not 
going to change any time soon. It does, however, signal a change in policy 
on East Timor. If it is true that the U.S. went to war over Kuwait for 
principled reasons, then precisely the same principles should apply in the 
Timor case, and U.S. policy should be adjusted accordingly.

The second matter is the threat that Jakarta will retaliate against U.S. 
firms if the IMET money is blocked. This is an empty threat. The Indonesians 
have spent most of the 1980s and early 1990s mounting a major campaign to 
attract international capital. They will think twice before jeopardizing 
this effort through attacking major corporations, especially the big-name 
firms that have been lobbying so hard in recent weeks. My estimation is the 
firms know this, but they need to show a good-faith effort anyway. An 
additional sign that the Indonesians are bluffing is the fact that they 
count on having these major U.S. firms on hand as a counter-balance to firms 
from other countries, particularly Japan.

The real reason behind the desperate campaign being waged from Jakarta is 
that the Indonesian military is extremely concerned that even a minor shift 
in the international community in favor of defending human rights and self 
determination in East Timor will prove to be more than they can manage. I 
urge you to resist the empty threats and alarms being sounded, and send a 
clear signal to Jakarta that the U.S. will not condone the wholesale killing 
of unarmed, civilian protestors.

--------

This "Review & Outlook" editorial ran in The Wall Street Journal on 
September 22, the day the Senate Appropriations Committee was to vote. Some 
of its errors are corrected in Leahy's response, which follows.

Leahy's Isolationism

Here's a post-Cold War policy riddle: A group of foreign soldiers with no 
American training opens fire on demonstrators. The soldiers are disciplined 
or court-martialed following an investigation by different officers who have 
had American training. What to do?

Well, if you're part of the growing neo-isolationist wing of the U.S. 
Congress, you cut off the foreigners from American training. No kidding. 
This is exactly what Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy wants to do to U.S. 
military training for the world's fourth most populous nation, Indonesia. 
Somehow isolating Indonesians from the disciplines, civilian-led U.S, 
military is supposed to make them more sensitive to human rights.

The Leahy effort doesn't save much money - only $2.3 million in fiscal 1992 - 
but it's more important as an illustration of the isolationist logic that 
has seized much of Congress. Isolationists on the right now think the U.S. 
is too good for the world; isolationists on the left think the world is too 
good for the U.S., especially for the American military. The Leahy ban draws 
from both isolationist strains, and especially from their shared conclusion 
that the U.S. should wash its hands of a messy world. Secretary of State 
Leahy, meet Pat Buchanan.

Yet Indonesia is precisely the sort of regional power that the U.S. can't 
afford to ignore in the post-Cold War world. Its size (pop.: 180 million) 
and strategic location make it a potential Asian powerhouse. It is the 
world's largest Muslim nation, yet it has Christians an the cabinet and 
plays a moderating role in Islamic world councils. It is run by a dictator 
of long-standing, Suharto, who has nonetheless tolerated enough free-market 
economic policies to keep living standards rising. The Indonesian officers 
who train in the United States are precisely the future leaders we should 
want to expose to American democratic principles.

Mr. Leahy and Amnesty International prefer to ignore all of this to declare 
their moral outrage over a 1991 shooting incident at Dili in the island of 
East Timor. Accounts differ about who was to blame, but no one disputes that 
Indonesian soldiers opened fire  on Timorese demonstrating for independence 
after an Indonesian officer was stabbed.

The military at first said that 19 Timorese were killed, but an 
investigating commission appointed by President Suharto reported that 50 
were killed and 90 others were missing. The military has since relieved the 
regional commander of his duty, forced four senior officers into retirement, 
and court-martialed 10 soldiers for exceeding or failing to obey their 
orders. Thirteen demonstrators have also been convicted of political crimes.

There's no denying the Indonesian military has a poor record on Timor, going 
back to the mid- 1970s when it crushed the Fretilin separatist movement. Our 
own view is that Indonesia would be better off letting the Timorese hold a 
referendum on independence, rather than maintain a permanent military 
presence.

But refusing to expose Indonesian officers to the U.S. tradition of a 
civilian-led military isn't likely to resolve any of this. It will probably 
make things worse, by reinforcing the most anti-Western military elements in 
Jakarta. Shows of moral outrage have their place in foreign policy, but only 
when they have a chance of achieving the moral ends they seek.

--------------

Senator Leahy wrote the following reply. I'm not sure if it was published:

September 23, 1992

To the editor:

On Tuesday your paper accused me of being a "neo-isolationist" because of my 
position on military aid for Indonesia. If the writer had bothered to ask me 
what I am recommending and why, the editorial might have amounted to more 
than a string of inaccuracies and distortions, both about my position and 
the situation in Indonesia.

You argue that instead of cutting off Indonesia from US military aid, we 
should "expose them to American democratic principles." Not a bad idea in 
theory, but we have been doing that through our military training program 
since the 1950s. Since then, according to the State Department, the 
Indonesian military has engaged in "a pattern" of abuses of human rights of 
"perhaps thousands" of civilians, including summary executions, torture and 
rape. The State Department reports that "government forces appear 
responsible for the majority of civilian deaths."

Last November, Indonesian troops fired without warning on hundreds of 
peaceful, unarmed pro- independence demonstrators at a cemetery in East 
Timor. Estimates of the number killed range from 75 to over 100. Although 
the Indonesian government continues to blame the demonstrators, the State 
Department concluded "there is no evidence that the use of deadly force was 
justified." What has happened since?

The massacre was videotaped so this time the Indonesian government could not 
deny it occurred. You noted that the demonstrators were convicted of 
"political" crimes, but forgot to mention they went to jail for 9 years to 
life. A handful of soldiers who fired the shots were arrested, and the 
highest sentence given was 18 months for disobeying orders, not murder. The 
government has refused to say who ordered or initiated the shooting or what 
was done with the bodies of the missing. Human rights monitors are banned 
from East Timor to this day, and the United Nations has condemned 
"continuing widespread human rights violations."

What should our policy be, business as usual as you urge? I do not recommend 
an irrevocable cutoff of US military training, but I do say we should 
suspend it until the President certifies that certain basic human rights 
conditions have been met. Those conditions are that Indonesia accept the 
assistance of the UN to account for the missing, which they have so far 
refused; that they take steps to bring to Justice those who ordered or 
initiated the shooting; that they review the sentences of the demonstrators; 
and allow human rights monitors access to East Timor.

Isolationism? More like upholding the basic values our country stands for, 
rather than pushing a horrible bloodbath under the rug. I fully support the 
$45 million in economic aid the administration plans for Indonesia next 
year, but all the military training in the world will do no good unless the 
government is determined to end these kinds of abuses. We saw that in El 
Salvador, where after a decade of US training an elite battalion of 
Salvadoran troops massacred six Jesuit priests and tried to cover it up. The 
choice is Indonesia's. The conditions I am recommending are the least we 
should expect if their army wants another $2.3 million of our taxpayers' aid.

Patrick Leahy
Chairman, Foreign Operations Subcommitte

** End of text from cdp:reg.easttimor **

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