U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld June 3 defended the resumption of military relations with Jakarta, saying it was likely to have a healthy influence on the Indonesian military.
The United States restored full military relations with Jakarta in November, lifting restrictions imposed in 1991 in response to human rights abuses by the Indonesian military during a bloody crackdown in East Timor.
Rumsfeld said he thought the suspension was “unfortunate.”
”We’ve lost a generation of relationships between the United States and Indonesia,” he told reporters after meeting here with Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson on the sidelines of an international security conference.
He said there was no guarantee that the Indonesian military would change its ways.
”On the other hand, I think that having a relationship with the United States and other countries, democratic countries, very likely will have a salutary effect on the military rather than an adverse one,” he said.
Critics say that Indonesia’s military has not yet taken full responsibility for its past rights abuses, particularly in East Timor before and in the run-up to its independence in 2002.
”Have they done enough? How much is enough?” Rumsfeld said. “I’ve never been one of those people who believe every country in the world has to look exactly like the United States.”
Nelson said the reform of the Indonesian military was progressing.
”We believe the Americans, the Australians, the Indonesians and from any other parts of the world face a common enemy — it’s terrorism,” he said.
”And for that reason my government has been working increasingly with the Indonesian military,” he said.
