U.S. Policy Toward Indonesia and East Timor
(A brief overview of U.S. policy since the 1970s)U.S. Interests
The United States has long had important national interests in Indonesia, a key regional actor that is strategically situated in the Asia-Pacific. The United States supports Indonesia's territorial integrity, as well as its economic development and transition to democracy.
With more than 200 million people, Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world and has the largest number of Muslims of any country.
The nation is comprised of more than 17,000 islands, which lie across key global shipping lanes that allow transit of oil to the United States and its allies and provide access through which U.S. naval power moves to defend American interests.
Abundant in many natural resources, Indonesia is among the world's important producers of oil and is a member of the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Indonesia has played a vital and constructive role in regional affairs.
It was a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), comprised of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, and Laos. ASEAN meets annually to discuss political as well as economic issues. In 1993, Indonesia helped found the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which meets annually to discuss security issues.
Indonesia is a key supporter of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which promotes greater economic cooperation and trade liberalization in the region.
Indonesia supported U.S. efforts to complete negotiation of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and supported a consensus decision in 1995 that extended indefinitely the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Indonesia has sponsored workshops to help resolve longstanding territorial disputes in the South China Sea. It provided safe haven to thousands of Vietnamese fleeing their homeland after the Vietnam War. And it played an important role in the United Nations-sponsored Cambodian peace process.
The country has also supported the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) and the Agreed Framework, thus helping to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation in North Korea.
From the 1960s until the early 1980s, the United States provided Foreign Military Sales (FMS) credits and/or grants to Indonesia for the purchase of American weapons systems from U.S. Government stocks for that country's self-defense.
Increasing American concerns about Indonesia's human rights record, however, led the United States to limit arms sales to Indonesia in the early 1990s.
In the last decade, U.S. military assistance has been limited to the provision of modest funding under the expanded International Military Education and Training (E-IMET) program. E-IMET programs are designed to improve the military's respect for human rights and civilian control of the country's armed forces. Since May 1998, the United States has provided no lethal military skills training for Indonesia. Nor has the United States allowed the sales of light arms or lethal crowd-control items to Indonesia. The President has suspended military-to-military relations and cut off all arms transfers.
U.S. Human Rights Concerns and East Timor
Although U.S. relations with Indonesia have been generally friendly, East Timor has been the focus of profound human rights concerns.
From 1524 to 1975, East Timor was a Portuguese colony on the island of Timor, separated from Australia's north coast by the Timor Sea. But in 1975, political events in Portugal led Portuguese authorities to abruptly withdraw from Timor.
The void left by Portugal's withdrawal exacerbated power struggles among several Timorese political factions. An avowedly Marxist faction called "Fretilin" eventually achieved military superiority.
During 1975 and 1976, Indonesia's military forces seized control and Indonesia annexed East Timor, a move the United Nations never recognized. U.S. policy makers at that time decided to accept Indonesia's incorporation of East Timor as an accomplished fact without accepting the de jure incorporation of East Timor into Indonesia. They judged that nothing the United States or the world was prepared to do at that time could change the situation.
The United States did, however, continue an ongoing dialogue with the Indonesian Government designed to promote the well being of the people of East Timor. It also supported discussions between Indonesia and Portugal under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary General, as mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1982.
In addition, the United States provided direct assistance to the people of East Timor through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In the late 1980s, USAID provided more than twice as many project dollars to East Timor on a per capita basis as to the rest of Indonesia. The Indonesian Government funneled substantial monies into the province as well.
Political unrest in East Timor persisted and, in January 1999, the Indonesian Government agreed to a UN-sponsored vote which would allow the people of East Timor to choose, in effect, between autonomy within Indonesia and independence. The United States strongly supported the UN effort.
On August 30, the East Timorese people voted overwhelmingly for independence.
Although the vote itself was conducted peacefully, in reaction to the results, pro-integrationist militias rampaged through cities and towns in East Timor. Even the offices of the United Nations and those of non-governmental organizations were plundered.
Hundreds of civilians reportedly were killed and more than 350,000 East Timorese were displaced from their homes. Some fled to the surrounding hills and jungles; others went to West Timor.
The Clinton Administration has repeatedly and strongly condemned the violence in East Timor and is supporting and participating in international peacekeeping efforts led by Australian troops, providing technical, logistical and other resources.
The U.S. Government has also responded by providing $10 million dollars in relief assistance to East Timor. On September 29, it announced an additional $5.1 million in humanitarian aid.
During her visit to Jakarta in March 1999, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Indonesian officials that "there is a burden on the military and police to preserve stability without engaging in human rights abuses that serve, over time, to provoke new instability...."
In public remarks delivered September 26 after her meeting in New York with East Timorese Independence Leader Xanana Gusmao, Albright expressed concern about credible reports that East Timorese are being forcibly relocated from West Timor to other locations in Indonesia.
The Indonesian Government and its armed forces, she said, must understand that the fate of East Timorese living throughout Indonesia "is as important to the United States policy as what happens in east Timor itself."
The United States, Albright said, expects the Indonesian government to allow East Timorese to return home and to allow international peacekeepers to complete their mission of stabilizing the area. Collusion between the Indonesian military and anti-independence militia groups must end, she said, and the militias "must not be permitted to either threaten displaced persons or to wage an insurgency campaign against East Timor."
U.S.-Indonesian relations, Albright said, "cannot return to what has been considered a normal basis" until the issues of East Timor have been resolved, but the United States continues to work with the international community and the Indonesian Government to aid East Timorese and to establish peace.
- Jane Morse, Washington File Staff Writer. The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.
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