Representative
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

RE: Oppose resumption of military assistance for Indonesia

Dear Representative ,

I am writing to urge you to actively oppose any U.S. military assistance for Indonesia. The Indonesian military should not receive U.S. support while it continues to evade accountability for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor and continues to torture, murder and rape civilians throughout Indonesia.

I am especially concerned that the secretive new Regional Defense Counter-Terrorism Fellowship Program will be used to evade important existing Congressional restrictions. This program clearly circumvents restrictions on International Military Education and Training (IMET) for Indonesia. I urge you to oppose Indonesia's participation in this program, as well as the administration's recent request for an additional $16 million to train the Indonesian military and police. Pentagon efforts to gut restrictions on military training for the Indonesian military would undermine the rule-of-law and human rights protections for East Timor and Indonesia. The Pentagon's efforts legitimize a security force that destroyed East Timor and has rewarded those responsible with promotions within government and military ranks.

I also urge you to support the renewal of existing restrictions on IMET and Foreign Military Financing (FMF) in the fiscal year 2003 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. U.S. policy must support human rights, and abusive militaries like Indonesia's should not be rewarded.

President Bush has defined terrorism as "violence against civilians for political purposes." It is quite clear that the actions of the Indonesian military in East Timor from 1975 through 1999, causing the violent deaths of many tens of thousands or more innocent civilians, fall under the President's definition. He has also stated that those who support terrorism, financially or otherwise, should themselves be considered terrorists. Since the great majority of those in the Indonesian military responsible for atrocities in East Timor have not been held accountable, and since the Indonesian military continues to commit similar acts in West Papua and Aceh, it is also painfully clear that the United States should NOT be giving any support to the Indonesian military now or at any time in the foreseeable future.

I look forward to your response.

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