[ETAN-key] Bush To Ask $16 Mln From Conggress For Indonesian Military Funding

[John M Miller]

The Jakarta Post

Monday, February 04, 2008

Bush to ask Congress for $16m in Indonesian military funding

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

U.S. President George W. Bush is poised to deliver his annual budget 
request Monday, proposing US$186 million in bilateral assistance to 
Indonesia in 2009, including some $16 million for military funding.

The total amount is, as reported by the Associated Press, down $4 
million from 2008, but the military aid level remains roughly the same.

For 2008, Bush asked for and received $15.7 million for foreign 
military financing to help Indonesia "promote defense reform and 
improve maritime security, counterterrorism, mobility and disaster 
relief capabilities".

Military analyst Ikrar Nusabakti of the Indonesian Institute of 
Sciences (LIPI) said Sunday the figure was not unusual and would 
simply maintain Washington's military cooperation with Jakarta.

"Regardless of some haunting human rights issues and still 
overshadowed by Bush's terrorism policy, the requested amount is a 
peanut," Ikrar told The Jakarta Post.

Besides, he added, Washington had to have learned that it could not 
afford to forgo military relations with Indonesia as it did between 
1999 and 2005.

Military relations between the two countries were strained in 1999 
following the referendum in breakaway province East Timor (now Timor 
Leste), with human rights groups accusing Indonesia of mass killings 
by the militia groups with the support of the army.

Bush revived all cooperation in 2005 after declaring Jakarta had made 
progress on some of Washington's earlier demands, including the 
prosecution of military officials in several human rights cases.

"There was sort of a generation loss during the embargo when the U.S. 
military had no Indonesian counterpart," said Ikrar.

The Bush administration sees Indonesia, home to the world's largest 
Muslim population, as crucial to fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia.

New York-based rights group East Timor and Indonesia Action Network 
(ETAN) has opposed increasing military assistance to Indonesia 
because it believes change in the Indonesian military's conduct over 
the past few years has yet to warrant such a generous increase.

On Monday, Bush will also request nearly $16 million in military aid 
for Myanmar.

Jacked up from around $5 million for 2008, the amount is seen as 
support to spark change in the country after its military junta 
crushed pro-democracy protests led by students and Buddhist priests last year.

Monday's request will be the start of a long process. The Senate and 
the House of Representatives must make recommendations on funding, 
and negotiators from each side will then hammer out a compromised 
bill before sending it to the president for enactment.

With Bush entering his last year in office, he faces strong 
opposition from the Democratic party that controls Congress, meaning 
there's no guarantee the budget will be funded at the levels he has requested.

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              Joyo Indonesia News Service

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