Kompas - March 19, 2010
Jakarta – The Commission
for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) is calling on the United
States not to cooperate with or provide military assistance to the Indonesian
government. Military cooperation would only be acceptable if the Indonesian
government seriously deals with and resolves cases of human rights violations.
This was conveyed by
Kontras coordinator Usman Hamid at a meeting with victims of human rights
violations in Jakarta on Thursday March 18.
“We are asking President
Obama not to cooperate with [the Indonesian] military, including providing
military assistance, if the Indonesian government is not serious about dealing
with cases of human rights violations”, he said.
During the meeting, the
families of the victims of human rights violations also made plans for a
peaceful action to coincide with the visit by US President Barack Obama. The
families also asked the US president not to cooperate with the Indonesian
military.
“We want to point out that
to this day the government has failed to seriously tackle cases of human rights
violations,” said Sumarsih, the mother of Wawan, a student who was shot in
front of the Atma Jaya University in Jakarta in November 1998. (DWA/FER)
[Abridged translation by James Balowski. The second
section of the article dealt with comments by Defense Minister Purnomo
Yusgiantoro on US-Indonesia ties and the possibility of the US restoring
military assistance to the Army’s special forces Kopassus.]
