Indonesia urges US to consider resuming military training of special forces

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Indonesia urges US to reconsider ban on training

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia urged the U.S. on Monday to consider lifting a ban on working with a commando unit accused of human rights abuses a decade ago, saying the country’s military has undergone significant reform.

Indonesia’s special forces have concentrated on counterinsurgency issues in recent years, but were accused of major abuses in the former Indonesian province of East Timor in the late 1990s. East Timor has since become independent.

Several countries, including the U.S. and Australia, suspended joint military training in the wake of the allegations, though Australia resumed training in 2005.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa held talks with visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and expressed hope that full military cooperation between the two countries could resume.

“I informed (Campbell) that the reform of the Indonesian military institution is a fact that is indisputable, is a fact of life. Now it depends on how the U.S. responds,” Natalegawa told reporters after meeting with the American diplomat Monday.

The issue is likely to feature in talks between President Barack Obama and his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, next week in Jakarta. Obama will be making his first trip as an American leader to a country where he had spent part of his childhood.

Natalegawa said Indonesia wants the United States to reconsider resuming joint training. However, he said Indonesia would not pressure Washington either.

“We will not force it because we do not want any form of cooperation that seems to be conditional,” he said.

The U.S. lifted an overall ban against training the Indonesian military in 2005, though it kept the restrictions against the Indonesian special forces known as Kopassus.

International rights groups said members of Kopassus were linked to the disappearance of student activists in East Timor in 1997 and 1998 and were never held accountable.

“President Obama should use this opportunity to ensure Indonesia curbs the sort of brutal conduct that led the U.S. to cut off aid to Kopassus in the first place,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report.