Hawai’i is one of the places implicated deeply with the abuses of the Indonesian military. Indonesia’s human rights abuses were so bad that Congress banned all military aid to Indonesia. After the 9/11 attacks, Senator Inouye openned the door to renewed military aid, adding a clause to a Defense bill that would allow the U.S. to train Indonesian military leaders at the Pacific Command’s Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, right in the heart of Waikiki. Since then, PACOM has trained with Indonesian troops at the biannual RIMPAC exercises, and the State of Hawai’i National Guard has now formed a partnership with the Indonesian military. People of Hawai’i should be outraged that we have become unwitting accomplices in the human rights abuses of Indonesia’s military. For many years, activists from Hawai’i who participated with the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement supported the movement for a Free East Timor, which won its independence in 2002.
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** Sign the petition opposing U.S. assistance or cooperation with Kopassus **
U.S. Groups Oppose Training of Indonesia’s Notorious Kopassus Special Forces
Contact: John M. Miller, ETAN, +1-718-596-7668
July 23 – More than 50 U.S. organizations today urged the U.S. government to “strictly prohibit any U.S. cooperation with or assistance to the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus)’ in a letter sent today to President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of Congress. The letter was coordinated by the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN).
“Restrictions on U.S. military assistance to Indonesia are needed to support democracy and human rights in Indonesia. Supporting Kopassus, which has a long history of terrorizing civilians, would send the worst possible signal to those fighting for justice and accountability in Indonesia and East Timor,” said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN.
The letter, signed by human rights, religious, peace and other groups, states, “The history of Kopassus human rights violations, its criminality and its unaccountability before Indonesian courts extends back decades and includes human rights and other crimes in East Timor, Aceh, West Papua and elsewhere.”
A recent Human Rights Watch report documents how Kopassus soldiers “arrest Papuans without legal authority, and beat and mistreat those they take back to their barracks.”
In 2008, the Bush administration proposed to restart U.S. training of Kopassus. the State Department legal counsel reportedly ruled that the ban on training of military units with a history of involvement in human rights violations, known as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole.
“The previous administration was forced to conclude that training Kopassus was both illegal and bad policy. The Obama administration should maintain this restriction,” said Miller.
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We the undersigned organizations call upon the U.S. government to strictly prohibit any U.S. cooperation with or assistance to the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus). This force, more than any other in the Indonesian military, stands accused by the Indonesian people of some of the most egregious human rights violations. The annual human rights report of the U.S. Department of State, the East Timor’s (Timor-Leste) truth commission (CAVR), United Nations human rights monitors, and the full range of Indonesian and international human rights have reported in detail the many crimes of Kopassus. Those responsible for these violations continue to enjoy broad impunity for their actions, even in a democratizing Indonesia.
The history of Kopassus human rights violations, its criminality and its unaccountability before Indonesian courts extends back decades and includes human rights and other crimes in East Timor, Aceh, West Papua and elsewhere. In 1998, a program — organized and led by then Kopassus commander (and recent vice- presidential candidate) General Prabowo Subianto — kidnapped, tortured and killed pro-democracy activists. Prabowo told reporters he is unrepentant over these crimes saying, “we could say it was preventative detention.” Other well-documented Kopassus crimes include organizing anti-Chinese rioting in Jakarta in 1998 and the 1984 massacre at Tanjung Priok in Java.
Throughout 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation of East Timor, Kopassus personnel, tortured and killed civilians in an attempt to intimidate and terrorize the population. Kopassus personnel played a key role, including organizing militia proxies, in the violence and destruction during 1999, the occupation’s final year.
The crimes of Kopassus are not only in the past. A recently published Human Rights Watch report details ongoing Kopassus human right violations in West Papua. The report documents how Kopassus soldiers “arrest Papuans without legal authority, and beat and mistreat those they take back to their barracks.”
Those who favor engagement argue that U.S. training could lead to reform of Kopassus. This argument is clearly refuted by history. For decades, the U.S. trained and gave other assistance to Kopassus personnel, including General Prabowo and other leading officers. This relationship had no ameliorative affect, rather, it provided the equipment and skills used for repression.
U.S. law prohibits the training of military units with a history of involvement in human rights violations. This provision has been long been interpreted as narrowly as possible. However, in 2008, the State Department ruled that the ban, known as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole. We believe that this ruling should apply and the U.S. must continue to refuse to train Kopassus.
Sincerely,
John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network
Mark C. Johnson, Ph.D., Executive Director The Fellowship of Reconciliation
Dave Robinson, Executive Director Pax Christi USA
Mubarak Awad, President Nonviolence International
Jim Winkler, General Secretary United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
Kevin Martin, Executive Director Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund
Land is Life
SOA Watch
West Papua Advocacy Team
Marie Dennis, Director (Rev.) James Kofski, M.M., Asia/Pacific and Middle East Issues Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Mary Anne Mercer, DrPH, Deputy Director Director of Timor-Leste Operations Health Alliance International
Marie Lucey, OSF, Associate Director, Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Sharon Silber, Chair, U.S. Section Society for Threatened Peoples
Carol Jahnkow, Executive Director Peace Resource Center of San Diego
Rosemarie Pace, Director Pax Christi Metro New York
Mary Beaudoin, Director Women Against Military Madness
Eileen B. Weiss, Co-Founder Jews Against Genocide
Ecumenical Peace Institute/CALC
Elaine Donovan Concerned Citizens for Peace, Honeoye, NY
Jeffrey Ballinger, Executive Director Press for Change
Diana Bohn Nicaragua Center for Community Action (NICCA) Berkeley, CA
Bruce K. Gagnon, Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace Olympia, WA
Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service Oakland, CA
Mary T. Whittlinger, Treasurer GOMA ( Ecumenical Moluccan Church).
Ben Manski, Executive Director Liberty Tree
Blase Bonpane, Ph.D., Director Office of the Americas
Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee
David Swanson After Downing Street
Joanne Landy and Thomas Harrison, Co-Directors Campaign for Peace and Democracy New York City
Diane Farsetta, Coordinator Madison (Wis.)-Ainaro (East Timor) Sister-City Alliance
Joan Kirby, UN Representative Temple of Understanding
Rev. John Chamberlin, National Coordinator East Timor Religious Outreach
Zelia Cordeiro and Felix Jones, Executive Team Members VIVAT International
The Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace Coalition
Michael Eisenscher, Coordinator Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice (LC4PJ)
Mass Peace Action
Daniel LeBlanc, DPI/NGO Representative at the UN Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
Roger S. Clark Board of Trustees International League for Human Rights.
Alan Muller, Executive Director Green Delaware
WESPAC Foundation
Mariza Costa Cabral ETAN/Seattle
Bill Ramsey Human Rights Action Service, St. Louis, MO
Peaceful Response Coalition Portland, OR
East Timor Action Network/Portland (OR)
Seattle International Human Rights Coalition
John J. Witeck, Coordinator Philippine Workers Support Committee Honolulu, Hawaii
Ben Gordon Pax Christi New Orleans
Jim Haber War Resisters League/West
Ellen E Barfield former national Vice-President, co-founder Baltimore Phil Berrigan Memorial Chapter Veterans for Peace
David McReynolds, former chair War Resisters International
Leslie Cagan Former co-chair United for Peace and Justice*
Sam Diener, Co-Editor Peacework Magazine, AFSC*
Robert Hanson, Past Chair, Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center* Walnut Creek, CA
Dr. Brad Simpson Asst. Professor of History and International Affairs, Princeton University Director, Indonesia and East Timor Documentation Project*
S. Eben Kirksey, Ph.D. Center for Cultural Studies, University of California, WPAT
Peter Bohmer, faculty in economics and political economy The Evergreen State College. Olympia, WA
* organization for identification purposes only
Source: http://www.etan.org/news/2009/07kopassus.htm
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