[ETAN-key] US should freeze help for Indonesia military: activists

[John M Miller]

US should freeze help for Indonesia military: activists

JAKARTA, Feb 18 (AFP) -- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should 
use her visit to Indonesia to call on the country's military to stop 
human rights abuses or risk losing US military assistance, activists 
said Wednesday. Clinton should abandon the "all-carrot, no stick 
approach" of former president George W. Bush in engaging the 
Indonesian armed forces (TNI) and make assistance conditional on 
reform, US-based rights activists said in a letter.

"We urge Secretary of State Clinton to promote a forward-looking 
agenda when she visits Indonesia. Any military assistance should be 
contingent on human rights accountability and real reform," East 
Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) coordinator John Miller 
said in a statement.

"The TNI looks at US government actions. Statements promoting rights 
and reforms will be dismissed by the TNI unless US assistance is 
suspended until genuine progress has been made," said the letter, 
signed by the heads of almost 40 rights and civil society groups, 
mostly from the United States.

Senior officers allegedly behind gross human rights abuses during the 
32-year regime of former dictator Suharto and the 24-year occupation 
of East Timor have gone unpunished and continue to have successful 
careers, it said.

The military also remains involved in illegal businesses such as 
logging, prostitution rings and protection rackets for foreign and 
local businesses, the letter said.

President Bush resumed military ties and arms sales to Indonesia in 
2005 after a six-year embargo, arguing the Muslim-majority nation was 
an essential partner in the "war on terror".

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John M. Miller         fbp at igc.org
National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: (718)596-7668  Mobile phone: (917)690-4391
Skype: john.m.miller
Web site: http://www.etan.org

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