The U.S. rulers’ decision to admit Indonesian officers into IMET is a product of their successful efforts to integrate the government of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono into Washington’s “war on terrorism.” The regime in Jakarta has pursued “Islamic” groups it accuses of involvement in the 2002 bombings in Bali and other armed actions.

“The Bush administration has been eager to get closer to the Indonesian military, which it sees as an important potential partner in its campaign against Al Qaeda,” said a March 1 New York Times article. “But until Indonesia accepted American military help in the tsunami rescue in January, the administration had not pushed Congress hard for resumption of full-scale training.”

Jakarta, for its part, took advantage of the relief operations for victims of last year’s devastating tsunami to deploy more soldiers to Aceh province against the decades-long fight by the people of Aceh against national oppression and for independence.

Among those condemning the renewed U.S.-Indonesian military program was the New York-based East Timor Action Network. Spokesman John Miller called it “a setback for justice,” the Associated Press reported. “The Indonesian military’s many victims throughout the country and East Timor will recognize this policy shift as a betrayal of their quests for justice and accountability,” he said.

Washington has backed and provided major funding to the Indonesian military since the 1950s. More than 8,000 Indonesian officers were trained at U.S. military institutions over four decades. In fact President Yudhoyono, a retired army general who became president of Indonesia last year, was trained through the IMET program and graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

In 1965, Washington backed a military coup in Indonesia launched by General Suharto and other officers against the bourgeois nationalist Sukarno government. Led by the Communist Party of Indonesia to place political trust in Sukarno, instead of their own independent action, workers and farmers were left defenseless against the Suharto dictatorship. The U.S.-backed regime massacred hundreds of thousands during its first years in power.

Suharto’s military government counted on full political and military support from Washington for most of its 33 years in power. Suharto stepped down in 1998 in the face of mass protests by working people and youth, and pressure from the imperialist powers and local ruling-class figures who hoped his resignation would defuse a social crisis triggered by a wave of currency devaluations across the region the year before.

In 1975 Indonesia invaded and occupied East Timor in an effort to halt the independence struggle there. In 1991, Indonesian troops deploying U.S.-supplied M-16 rifles killed 271 pro-independence demonstrators. In response to a growing public outcry, the U.S. Congress cut off Indonesia’s eligibility for participation in the IMET program and the purchase of certain kinds of “lethal” military equipment.

Eight years later Indonesian forces were accused of involvement in the killing some 1,500 East Timorese in an effort prevent the territory from gaining independence. Following the widely abhorred massacre Washington announced a halt to all military cooperation with the Indonesian armed forces. Congress further sanctioned the ban in 2002 after generals in Jakarta were charged with blocking an investigation into the killing of two U.S. schoolteachers in Papua province.

However, since Sept. 11, 2001, “the administration has gradually renewed ties by providing aid through new anti-terrorism accounts, resuming joint military exercises, and inviting Indonesian officers to participate in regional military conferences,” reports an article from the OneWorld news.  
 
 
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