Don't Train Indonesia's Deadly Kopassus

Sign the Petition - http://www.gopetition.com/online/29600.html

Don't Train Indonesia's Deadly Kopassus

Indonesia's Special Forces (Kopassus), more than any other in the Indonesian military, stands accused by the Indonesian people of some of the most egregious human rights violations.

The history of Kopassus human rights violations, its criminality and its unaccountability before Indonesian courts extends back decades and includes human rights and other crimes in East Timor, Aceh, West Papua and elsewhere. The crimes of Kopassus are not only in the past. A recently published Human Rights Watch report details ongoing Kopassus human right violations in West Papua.

In 2008, the Bush administration proposed to restart U.S. training of Kopassus. the State Department legal counsel reportedly ruled that the ban on training of military units with a history of involvement in human rights violations, known as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole.

See the letter signed by more than 50 U.S. organizations opposing training for Kopassus: http://www.etan.org/news/2009/07kopassus.htm. Additional background about the crime of Kopassus here: http://www.etan.org/news/2008/04brikop.htm.

Support ETAN - DONATE Today! Go here: http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm

ENDS

© Scoop Media