July 22, 2010
The Washington Post

U.S. To Resume Ties With Indonesia's Special Forces

by Craig Whitlock

JAKARTA -- The U.S. military said Thursday that it would resume relations and training with Indonesia's special forces, an elite group blamed for atrocities and repression during the country's dark years of authoritarianism. . . .

Under a 1997 law sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the United States is prohibited from contact with foreign military units that have a pattern of human-rights violations and have resisted efforts to hold abusers accountable, even for crimes committed long ago. The State Department also has a policy of vetting individual officers from foreign militaries before they are allowed to participate in U.S. training programs.

Kopassus served as a brutal arm of the military during long reign of Indonesian dictator Suharto, crushing communist sympathizers and repressing regime opponents in East Timor, Aceh and Papua. Suharto was deposed in 1998.

Indonesia has subsequently convicted about a dozen Kopassus officers for abuses during Suharto's rule. But advocacy groups noted that many have been allowed to return to duty, including some who have taken senior positions in the Indonesian military. . . .

FULL TEXT

Tweet
Follow @wisdomfund

Enver Masud, "One Million Indonesians Died In U.S. Backed Coup," The Wisdom Fund, September 15, 1999

[Suharto's 31-year rule was brutal and corrupt. Yet now they want to honour him--Sholto Byrnes, "Indonesia to rebrand dictator as 'national hero'," Independent, October 31, 2010]

[George Soros and his CIA, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), International Republican Institute (IRI), and National Democratic Institute (NDI) minions - the latter two dedicated to spreading the myth of competitive American politics to the rest of the world - are using a simple story of police and judicial corruption in a small Indonesian town to craft the next themed revolution.--Wayne Madsen, "Next Stop for Soros' Themed Revolution Express -- Indonesia," opinion-maker.org, January 12, 2012]

[NED and Freedom House often work as a kind of tag-team with NED financing "non-governmental organizations" inside targeted countries and Freedom House berating those governments if they crack down on U.S.-funded NGOs.--Robert Parry, "CIA's Hidden Hand in 'Democracy' Groups," consortiumnews.com, January 8, 2015]