ETAN Praises U.S. Senate for Upholding Commitment to Human Rights for
Indonesia, Timor

Contact: John M. Miller (718) 596-7668
Karen Orenstein (202) 544-6911

July 20, 2005 - The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) today
praised the Senate for agreeing today to maintain most restrictions on U.S.
military assistance to Indonesia.

The Senate version of the fiscal year (FY) 2006 Foreign Operations
Appropriations bill would continue restrictions on Foreign Military Finance
(FMF) and export of "lethal" military equipment until certain conditions
are met. The House version would remove all restrictions on military
assistance. A conference committee with representatives from both chambers
must reconcile the two versions of the bill before it is sent to the
President for signature.

The Senate bill, however, would provide $1.5 million in FMF for the
Indonesian Navy. International Military Education and Training (IMET) funds would not be made available until the Secretary of State submits a detailed report on U.S. and Indonesian efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the ambush and murder of two U.S. citizens and an Indonesian in West Papua on August 31, 2002.

"The same conditions which apply to weapons sales should apply to military
training and the Indonesian Navy," she said. "Any U.S. assistance will be
viewed by the still unreformed, unaccountable, and intensely corrupt
Indonesian military as an endorsement of business-as-usual, not as a reward
for very modest reforms."

The Senate bill would also require a report on troop deployments and
humanitarian and human rights conditions in West Papua and Aceh,
Indonesia's most repressed provinces. This reporting would include "the
extent to which members of Indonesia's security forces support these
[jihadist-oriented] militia," and "the extent to which international
funding for reconstruction in Aceh is being contracted or subcontracted to
firms controlled by or affiliated with the Indonesian military."