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Writers Articles And Opinions |
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21 November 2010 By Stephen
Lendman
An earlier article said it was
expected, accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/expected-obama-administration-backing.html
It discussed Indonesia's National
Armed Forces (TNI), especially its thuggish Kopassus
Special Forces Command, its red beret unit responsible
for political killings, torture, rape, and massacres
of hundreds of thousands of civilians in East Timor,
Aceh, Papua, and elsewhere in the country.
TNI aid was restricted following
a November 12, 1991 Santa Cruz cemetery massacre of
over 270 demonstrators in Dili, East Timor. In July,
it was restored, a July 22 East Timor Action Network (ETAN)
press release "condemn(ing) the Obama administration's
decision to resume engagement with Indonesia's
notorious Kopassus special forces," ETAN's National
Coordinator, John Miller, saying:
"Slipping back into bed with
Kopassas is a betrayal of the brutal unit's many
victims in Timor-Leste (East Timor), West Papua and
throughout Indonesia. It will lead to more people
(suffering) abuses. Working with Kopassus which
remains unrepentant about its long history of
terrorizing civilians, will undermine efforts to
achieve justice and accountability for human rights in
Indonesia and Timor-Leste."
"For years, the US military
provided training and other assistance to (TNI and its
infamous) Kopassus, and when the US was most involved,
Kopassus crimes were at their worst. While this
assistance improved (TNI's) deadly skills, it did
nothing to improve its behavior."
Yet Defense Secretary Robert
Gates said Washington "will begin a gradual, limited
program of security cooperation activities," a veiled
assurance of business as usual. It's no surprise as
CIA armies, US Special Forces, and other military
units replicate the worst of Kopassus manyfold.
Kopassus terrorizes Indonesia.
America does it globally, a record no other country
approaches.
A Snapshot of
Kopassus Terror
Since formed in 1952, its record
includes kidnappings, rape, torture, targeted
killings, sweeping violence, mass murder, and other
atrocities against anyone supporting independence or
challenging state authority. A June 2009 Human Rights
Watch (HRW) report reviewed Kopassus abuses titled,
"What Did I Do Wrong? It discussed "frequent brutality
against ordinary Papuans," including:
-- ordinary people arrested
without legal authority;
-- in Kopassus barracks, they
were beaten and otherwise mistreated, one former
detainee saying:
"They stripped us down to just
our underwear. They immediately beat us, without
saying anything. They used a water hose. They beat us
till we bled and had cuts....They kicked me in the
chest with their boots, an officer shout(ing) 'You
Papuans, one single Kopassus soldier can kill you like
chickens.' "
Similar abuses are replicated
across Indonesia, including in Jakarta, the capital,
Kopassus operating with impunity. One detainee was
savagely beaten after asking "What did I do wrong?"
Another said he was kicked and beaten all night until
morning. He asked the same question. So did others.
HRW presented case studies of extreme abuse and
mistreatment, against "rebels, "separatists," and
"ordinary members of the population," some seized
randomly. Others in detention never returned.
A November West Papua Report
provides video evidence of Kopassus torturing Papuan
civilians. In response, the Yudhoyono government said
security forces will investigate themselves.
Washington downplayed the evidence. ETAN explained
that within days of the video's release, "a massive
cyber attack took down many of the international NGO
websites" that posted the footage. Clearly, a
government agency was responsible.
Another incident showed Kopassus
burning a Papuan village. The West Papuan Advocacy
Team (WPAT) criticized Washington's "limp" response,
including downplaying clear evidence of torture and
resisting calls for accountability and ending
appalling atrocities. This "demonstrates an even
greater willingness than the Bush and Clinton
administrations to provide diplomatic cover for human
rights violations by" Kopassus.
For example, video evidence
showed a burning ember applied to a man's genitals,
then suffocating him, while a knife was held to his
face and throat. Another man was stabbed to death,
video showing his agonizing last minutes during which
Kopassus taunted him before inflicting a death wound.
For many years, Indonesian
security forces have tortured, robbed, and murdered
Papuans, their homes, gardens, other property, and
livestock then torched. Thousands fled to forests and
died of starvation. Others were shot dead before they
could escape.
ETAN expressed outrage that:
"The Obama Administration, rather
than simply condemning the torture of Papuans by
Indonesian security personnel....suggested a specious
silver lining - prais(ing) Indonesia for its upfront
approach," for acknowledging some abuses, but saying
they "would not affect military ties, which form one
component of a comprehensive partnership agreement
President Obama (solidified) in Jakarta."
In late October, ahead of his
arrival, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Bob
Scher told the Singapore Straits Times that "The TNI
has made great strides in addressing human rights
issues and accountability." He also defended the
administration's decision to resume close ties with
Kopassus, including providing military aid.
In fact, Kopassus abuses never
stopped, including in Papua against independence
movement (OPM) separatists and others challenging
government authority. Among them, ETAN lists the
following outstanding cases:
(1) During pro-democracy activism
leading up to President's Suharto's 1998 ouster,
students were intimidated, beaten, disappeared, and
never found.
(2) "Until September 1999,
Kopassus routinely engaged in torture, rape and murder
in East Timor," and trained its militia affiliates to
conduct similar activities, including widespread
murder.
(3) In 2001, Kopassus kidnapped
and murdered Theys Eluay, Papua's most prominent
leader. In 2004, four of its forces were convicted in
a military court, got light 42 month sentences (likely
shortened by early releases), and their superiors were
absolved.
(4) In Aceh, Kopassus also
engaged in torture, targeted killings, and other
abuses up to and after the 2005 peace agreement
between pro-independence forces (GAM) and the
government.
The US State Department compiled
its own Kopassus violation list, including:
-- ongoing Papua abuses;
-- targeting Pastor Johanes
Djonga for speaking out against Papua human rights and
political abuses; in August 2007, he was threatened
with death and burial "in a 700-meter-deep gorge;"
-- on October 18, 2007, Kopassus
beat Charles Tafor, head of Papua's Arso district;
-- in 2005, its forces killed two
men and injured another in Bireuen, Aceh;
-- in July 2003, an unidentified
Acehnese man was arrested, then tortured by beatings
and electric shocks;
-- in July 2002, the West Papuan
human rights group ELSHAM reported a series of
logging-relating human rights abuses (including
beatings) committed from February to June 2002;
-- in March 2002, Kopassus
detained and tortured Koes Sofyan, a human rights
activist, for nearly three months;
-- in June 2001, they kidnapped
Hubertus Wresman, a Sunday school teacher, in the
middle of the night from his home; his uncle, Gaspar
Wespar was beaten when inquiring of his whereabouts,
later disappeared, and neither man again surfaced;
and
-- numerous Kopassus East Timor,
Sumatra and Java abuses were listed, including torture
and murder.
The State Department also
documented human rights abuses committed by Brimob,
Indonesia's National Police operations force unit, its
mobile brigade, notorious for the same atrocities as
Kopassus.
Secret Kopassus
Files Revealed
On November 9, Allan Nairn
headlined, "Breaking News: Secret Files Show Kopassus,
Indonesia's Special Forces, Targets Papuan Churches,
Civilians. Documents Leak from Notorious US-Backed
Unit as Obama Lands in Indonesia." His full account
can be accessed through the following link:
www.allannairn.com/
Materials "include a Kopassus
enemies list headed by Papua's top Baptist minister
and describe a covert network of surveillance,
infiltration and disruption of Papuan institutions."
Classified "SECRET (RAHASIA),"
detailed backgrounds on civilian targets are given.
More releases are coming. Ones available are for
Papua, where Kopassus murdered "tens of thousands of
civilians."
A secret 25-page report calls
civilian separatists and their top 15 leaders Kopassus'
main enemy - separatists, GSP/P, including the head of
Papua's Baptist Synod, evangelical ministers,
activists, traditional leaders, legislators, students,
intellectuals, the head of the Papua Muslim Youth
organization, and others.
The report says Kopassus commits
kidnappings and murders against people called the
enemy. A "State of the enemy" discussion identifies
two subversive activities:
-- "the holding of press
conferences (that) always criticize the government and
the work being done by the security forces;" and
-- private meetings for the same
purposes.
The Obama administration's
rationale for restoring aid was fighting terrorism.
Documents, however, show that security forces commit
state terrorism, mainly activist civilians and
separatists wanting freedom and independence. Himself
a target, Reverend Giay said Washington believes "it's
OK to kill pastors and burn churches since the
churches are separatist." He compared Papua TNI/Kopassus
abuses to earlier ones in East Timor and the Malukus
where "they created this conflict between Muslims and
Christians" for more funding and power.
Documents also show "Kopassus
indeed penetrates most every part of popular life,"
using undercover officers and "a small army of non-TNI
'agents' - real people with real lives and identities,
who are bought, coerced or recruited into working
covertly." They support the common view that "you
rarely know who is Kopassus. So best watch what you
say if you care for safety, especially if what you say
is 'freedom.' "
On November 9, Democracy Now
interviewed Nairn, commenting on Obama's Indonesia
visit and released Kopassus documents on his web site.
He called West Papua under "de facto occupation. It
became part of Indonesia through a dirty deal among
the UN, the Dutch and the US. It was basically
absorbed against the will of the Papuans."
The released documents show
opposition to occupation. Papuans want freedom, but
those saying it become enemies, targeted for removal.
Yet Obama said TNI/Kopassus were reforming, cleaning
up their act. It's patently false. The same East
Timor/Aceh abusers are there, now promoted.
"For example, the person who now
runs the Indonesian Defense Ministry - the number two,
but he really runs it - is an old Kopassus general,
Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, who was indicted for war crimes
in East Timor - according to witnesses, was personally
involved in executions."
Indonesia's President Yudhoyono
appointed him, another touted reformer. Yet Kopassus,
TNI and other security forces routinely kidnap,
torture and kill. They conduct military sweeps, making
arrests, burn villages, and murder civilians.
Munir Thalib, a man Nairn called
outspoken, tough, brilliant, a good friend, and
fearless human rights activist was murdered. Others
like him as well as ordinary people are targeted,
Kopassus single-mindedly turning a blind eye to
reform, but, nonetheless, got military aid restored
showing Washington supports their abuses, the same
ones it commits globally.
Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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