AP, ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Indonesia: The United States wants to boost military ties with the Indonesian military on the back of the two countries' close cooperation in helping victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami, America's ambassador to Indonesia said Thursday.
The United States cut off ties with the Indonesian military in 1999 because of human rights concerns. The Bush administration, however, is keen to see the restrictions lifted, partly because of fears that al-Qaida may launch attacks from Indonesia, which has seen a string of deadly bombings in recent years.
The U.S. military was the first foreign army to arrive in Indonesia to join the tsunami relief efforts. Its helicopters have ferried tons of food and water to the survivors.
Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe praised the two militaries' cooperation.
“We look forward to having much better relations with the military in the weeks and months to come, and we will certainly be working on that with them,” he told reporters.
Pascoe declined to say whether he would recommend that the U.S. Congress lift the ban.
The USS Abraham Lincoln, meanwhile, was departing from Indonesia's tsunami-battered Sumatra island in the single biggest withdrawal of the American military aid effort since the Dec. 26 disaster.
The aircraft carrier, with 5,300 sailors and Marines aboard, “is moving out of Indonesian waters,” said U.S. Navy spokesman Cmdr. Mark McDonald. The ship is expected to head for Singapore.
In a visit to Indonesia last month, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said closer contact with the U.S. military would strengthen the Indonesian military's commitment to human rights and allow it to better respond to natural disasters.
Wolfowitz, a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, is a key proponent of improved ties between the two countries. Critics say he is turning a blind eye to massive human rights abuses by the Indonesian military.
Congress has so far blocked moves to reopen ties, which were severed in 1999 when Indonesian soldiers and militia proxies took part in bloody rampage that killed hundreds of people in East Timor following its vote for independence.
U.S. lawmakers maintain that the military has not improved its human rights record since then.
Suspected military involvement in the murder of two American teachers at a U.S.-owned gold mine in the remote province of Papua in 2002 has also complicated moves to restore links.
Indonesia has long called for the ban to be lifted so it can buy new U.S. military equipment and take part in American training programs.
Indonesian military chief Gen. Endriatono Sutarto, who also attended Thursday's ceremony, said he hoped the tsunami cooperation would “pave the way for a wider range of cooperation between the two armed forces.”
Alwi Shihab, the government minister in charge of the tsunami relief effort, said he expected more “fruitful” ties with both the Bush administration and Congress in the coming months.
