President Obama Mulling an End to Ban on Indonesian Military Aid
Members of the Obama Administration are reportedly considering ending a ban on assisting an elite unit of the Indonesian military. The unit, known as Kopassus (short for Indonesian Komando Pasukan Khusus), has been denied American military assistance for 12 years due to criminal convictions of beatings and killings associated with their members. The Bush administration, due to increased cooperation between the two countries on Islamic terrorism, attempted to remove the ban in 2008, but were prevented by the State Department. However, the rise of Chinese influence in Southeast Asia has President Obama reaching out in an effort to counter China’s rise.
Unnamed officials at the Indonesian Embassy predict that cooperation will resume. The ban was pursuant to the Leahy Law, passed in 1997, that prevented military assistance to governments with a record of human rights abuses unless those governments were attempting to correct the past abuses. While geo-strategic think tanks generally approve of the plan as a measure to a new Asian defense strategy, human rights groups feel that Indonesia has not prosecuted former Kopassus members enough.
Kopassus throughout its history has largely been used for internal repression. I’m not sure what that has to do with balancing the Chinese in the region. It’s also hard to see how Kopassus has met any of the requirement of the Leahy law. Kopassus solidiers are rarely held accountable for their human rights crimes. Indeed, of the rare few that have actually been convicted of human rights crimes – including the kidnapping of activists in 1998-99 and the murder of Papuan leader, many are still on active duty. See more at http://www.etan.org