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United States. A key US senator and human rights groups voiced regret at the resumption of ties between the US military and Indonesian special forces unit Kopassus, which has been accused of ongoing human rights violations.

Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, the author of the law that bans US support of foreign militaries that violate human rights, said Kopassus “remains unrepentant, essentially unreformed and unaccountable.”

“I deeply regret that before starting down the road of re-engagement, our country did not obtain and Kopassus did not accept the necessary reforms we have long sought,” said Leahy.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, visiting Jakarta on Thursday, announced that the United States would resume ties with Kopassus, an elite unit involved in controversial military operations including the occupation of East Timor.

President Barack Obama’s administration has been seeking to build stronger relations with Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, which has rapidly transformed in the past decade into a civilian-led democracy.

But Gates said relations with Kopassus would be limited at first and that the United States would only expand cooperation if the unit, and the Indonesian military as a whole, carried out reforms.

Local rights group the West Papua Advocacy Team said that Kopassus soldiers “continue to repress peaceful protest ... [and] routinely intimidate, threaten and accost Papuans who non-violently resist denial of fundamental rights.”

The group said a sweeping Kopassus operation against separatist rebels in remote areas of Papua has forced thousands of villagers to flee into the forest, where they lack food, shelter and medical care.

American forces ended ties with Kopassus in 1999 under a law banning cooperation with foreign troops implicated in rights abuses. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International were also sharply critical of the decision to renew cooperation.

“It’s hard to see the administration’s decision as anything other than a victory for abusive militaries worldwide,” HRW’s Asia advocacy director Sophie Richardson said.

Amnesty International said that the decision sent “the wrong message in a country where mass and severe human rights violations have taken place in an atmosphere of impunity.”

The Indonesian government has offered no official comment since Gates announced the renewal of ties with the military unit. 


Agence France-Presse