Human rights group condemns renewed military ties with Indonesia

Mar 4, 2007, 7:59 GMT

Wellington - New Zealand campaigners for human rights in Indonesia on Sunday condemned the government's reported decision to end a ban on military cooperation with the Asian country.

Maire Leadbeater, of the Indonesia Human Rights Committee, said the government had invited an Indonesian officer to attend the New Zealand Defence Force Command and Staff College course this year, the first time since military ties were suspended in September 1999 after violence broke out in East Timor.

'We are appalled that this significant policy shift was not subject to any debate with either the New Zealand public or parliament,' Leadbeater said.

'Why is the New Zealand government overlooking the Indonesian military's ongoing responsibility for human rights violations, especially in conflict areas such as West Papua and Poso?' she asked.

'In West Papua a programme of military expansion is underway, and military intimidation has displaced thousands of people in the Puncak Jaya region.'

Leadbeater said there had been no accounting for a '24-year brutal occupation' of East Timor and only one person, the East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres, had been held to account for the 1999 violence.

She blamed the Indonesian military for the deaths of three New Zealanders and said no commander had been held responsible for 'military abuses and massacres that have been documented when Aceh was under military rule, and numerous military killings of pro-democracy activists remain unaccounted for.'

Leadbeater said East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation recommended that no state should resume military cooperation with Indonesia until there had been genuine progress towards full democratization, the subordination of the military to the rule of law and civilian government and strict adherence with international human rights, including respect for the right of self-determination.

She said the New Zealand Government should heed that recommendation 'instead of restoring defence ties to a military force emboldened by decades of impunity.'