Indonesia crucial ally for U.S. military

A sea of Indonesian Marines crowd the dock as they attend a military ceremony after their arrival in Aceh

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The United States' moves toward resuming military ties with Indonesia will strengthen a force which is seen as a crucial ally in its anti-terrorism campaign but which critics decried as undermining civilian supremacy in the fledgling democracy.

The U.S. cut off training for the Indonesian military in 1999 after it was accused of fomenting violence in East Timor when the former territory voted to break away from Jakarta rule. Hundreds were killed in the carnage.

Indonesia urged full restoration of military ties, saying the embargo bred a breed of conservative officers as they rose through the ranks without any exposure to democracy through the International Military Education and Training (IMET) facility.

"The result is we do not have any military officers, from the rank of lieutenant-colonel to colonel, who have been exposed to the U.S.," Major-General Sudrajat told CNN in an interview.

"Those who were in the IMET are now in the retiring age. So if they wait too long, there will be no Indonesian officers who understands and is well-exposed to the U.S.," he said.

Sudrajat is the director-general of defense strategy for the Ministry of Defense. He was formerly Indonesia's military attache in Washington D.C. and himself a beneficiary of IMET where he earned a Masters from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Public Administration.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee agreed on July 18 to resume military ties with Indonesia. The bill needs to be approved by Congress before it becomes law.

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This signals U.S. concerns over signs that international terrorist networks have contacts with militant groups in Indonesia and that its porous borders, spread over 13,000 islands, are vulnerable to infiltration.

According to Sudrajat, reforms within the military were led by officers in 1998 who had participated in IMET and they differed from the current breed of officers who have not been exposed to the U.S.

"They (new breed) have their own style, are very parochial, very sensitive to criticisms and resistant to change. They believe too strongly in their own experience, 'My way is the best' like Suharto," he said.

"They don't believe in civil supremacy, that the military has to retain power like in the past," said Sudrajat.

Military reform

Indonesia's former military commander, Major General Adam Damiri, is being tried for charges of human rights violations

Former President Suharto ruled Indonesia with an iron-fist for 32 years before his ouster in 1998. A former army general, he gave vast powers to the military by appointing them to key cabinet positions and top jobs in the bureaucracy.

After Suharto fell, the public demanded the military reform itself into a professional force by concentrating on defense matters and to hand over its political powers to the civilians. They also called for the military to account for its violations of human rights.

Prominent Indonesian human rights activist, Munir, said American training did not guarantee officers would respect human rights.

"Retired generals who were involved in human rights abuses were graduates of IMET so there is no guarantee," Munir told CNN.

"The issue here is not a question of democratic values but social and economic interest that greatly dominates the military's attitude toward whether it wants to change or not," Munir added.

Munir is the founder of the Commission of Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

Sudrajat said if military officers did not possess democratic values, Indonesia risks ending up with a fundamentalist or authoritarian government.

"If officers do not hold democratic values, it opens the possibility for Taliban-type or communist-type of government to be established, or maybe dictatorships. Then this is going to be very dangerous," said Sudrajat.

In the U.S., critics of U.S.-Indonesia military ties charged that the military had yet to account for its human rights abuses and were also funding radical groups.

"An ad hoc trial for human rights is being held to try officers accused of abuses in East Timor. As for radical groups, there were some officers who were involved in 1999 but it is now cleaned up. They don't hold any important positions and are in the process of being retired," said Sudrajat.