Indonesia Human Rights Committee

Box 68 419

Auckland

9 May, 2007

Media Release: Protest at resumption of defence ties with Indonesia

The Indonesia Human Rights Committee will demonstrate outside the Army’s Auckland Regional Support Centre 204-234 Great North Rd, at 12 noon on Friday May 11. An Indonesian officer is scheduled to begin his training at the New Zealand Defence Force Staff and Command College in Wellington on Monday May 14.

“We want to leave the Government in no doubt that we condemn the decision to resume defence ties eight years after they were suspended. When East Timor voted for independence in August 1999 the military unleashed a cataclysm of violence which was only brought to an end by firm international action," said Maire Leadbeater. "Since then not one Indonesian military commander has been held to account.”

“During the 24 year brutal occupation of East Timor that country lost at least a quarter of its population to war, hunger and disease. Moreover no commander has been held responsible for the litany of historic military abuses and massacres that have been documented when Aceh was under military rule, or the countless military killings of pro-democracy activists during the Suharto years. The Indonesian military is also responsible for ongoing human rights violations. In West Papua a programme of military expansion is under way, and military intimidation has displaced thousands of people in the Puncak Jaya region.”

The Indonesian military is not simply the servant of the elected government as in New Zealand but has its own agenda and relies on its own independent sources of financing for most of its funding. It is deeply involved in a range of destructive and illicit business activities such as illegal logging.

Timor-Leste’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) recommended that no state should resume military cooperation with Indonesia until there has been genuine ‘progress towards full democratisation, the subordination of the military to the rule of law and civilian government and strict adherence with international human rights, including respect for the right of self-determination.’

The New Zealand Government should heed this recommendation, instead of restoring defence ties to a military force emboldened by decades of impunity.

ENDS

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