THE United States has dropped its military embargo against Indonesia, six years after the Indonesian Army killed 1,500 people in the occupied country of East Timor.

The decision will allow the US Government to provide financial assistance for Indonesia to buy American weapons and to train its officers in American military colleges. It is also intended as a reward for Jakarta’s co-operation in pursuing Islamic militants.

Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said that the lifting of sanctions was “in the national security interests of the United States”.

He said: “Indonesia is a voice of moderation in the Islamic world. The Administration considers the relationship between the United States and Indonesia, the world’s third largest democracy, to be of the utmost importance.”

But the move was bitterly criticised yesterday by human rights groups who contend that the Indonesian military is corrupt, brutal and unaccountable.

“With the stroke of a pen, Secretary (Condoleezza) Rice and President Bush betrayed the untold tens of thousands of victims of the Indonesian military’s brutality in Indonesia and East Timor and undermined efforts at democratic reform,” John Miller, of the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (Etan), said.

US military co-operation with Indonesia was restricted after Indonesian troops killed unarmed mourners at a funeral in East Timor in 1991. But the nadir came eight years later after a UN referendum in which 80 per cent of Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia. As soon as the result was announced, Indonesian soldiers and their local militias burnt East Timor’s towns and cities, deported 250,000 of its citizens and killed 1,500. The US Congress, with the EU, suspended military assistance and arms sales almost immediately, although the European embargo was lifted within months.

Since the fall of President Suharto’s dictatorship in 1998, Indonesia has become a democracy, but the Indonesian National Army (TNI) has repeatedly been accused of violating human rights.

In the province of West Papua, where insurgents are fighting a low-level independence struggle, there are frequent allegations of extra-judicial killing, torture and military violence. In 2002 two American teachers were killed, allegedly by Indonesian soldiers. In January the TNI murdered several unarmed guerrillas who had returned to their homes to help the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami in Aceh.

Part of the problem is the TNI’s independence from the Government. Indonesia’s civilian Defence Minister does not have the authority to appoint, discipline or remove officers.

Three developments, however, have persuaded the US Administration to restore military links. President Susilo, a former general, appears to have a genuine wish for reform; and Aceh, where so many of the TNI’s abuses were perpetrated, has been peaceful since an agreement in September.

More important, though, is Jakarta’s co-operation in the War on Terror. At the time of the first Bali bomb three years ago, the Indonesian authorities were regarded as wilfully blind to the terrorist cells in their midst. Since then, however, the police and TNI have worked closely with US agencies, arresting and handing over important prisoners, including Omar al-Faruq, who then escaped from American custody.

KILLING CIVILIANS

1945 Indonesian Army founded after Japanese surrender, to drive out the returning Dutch colonists

1949 Indonesia wins independence

1965-66 500,000 civilians killed in anti-communist massacres supported by the army

1975 Indonesia invades East Timor — over the next 23 years 200,000 people died as a result

1984 Army fires on Muslim demonstrators in Tanjung Priok, north Jakarta, killing at least 33

1991 Soldiers kill hundreds of mourners at a funeral in Dili, the capital of East Timor

1999 Army and its militias rampage in East Timor after its vote for independence. Military embargo imposed by US and EU

2000 EU lifts embargo

2005 Ceasefire in Aceh

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