Monday, September 11, 2000
East Timor situation on agenda
for Cohen talks in Indonesia
By Chuck Vinch
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary William Cohen will deliver a strong message from President Clinton to Indonesian officials this week about the failure of that nation’s government to bring to heel the violent militia gangs that continue to wreak havoc on the island of Timor.
Cohen will be in Indonesia on an ambitious nine-day trip to Asia, starting Wednesday, that also will include stops in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Korea and Japan. It will be his 10th trip in three years as defense secretary.
“Indonesia’s failure to protect an American citizen and other international aid workers, and the more general failure of the Indonesian army to provide security for relief operations, threatens to destroy the international goodwill towards Indonesia at a time when it needs it most,” a senior Pentagon official said at a briefing.
The official, who discussed the trip on the condition that he not be identified, said Cohen expects to meet with Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and senior military officials about the situation in Timor.
U.N. peacekeepers descended on East Timor last August after militias went on a rampage following a referendum for independence that island residents approved.
The militia gangs then fled to West Timor, where they continue a campaign of bloody violence despite repeated assurances from the Indonesian government that they have the situation under control.
The U.N. workers, including a man from Puerto Rico whose family lives in Florida, were slain Wednesday just hours before the opening of the U.N. Millennium Summit, a major global summit in New York, where Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Clinton and other leaders criticized Indonesia — in the presence of Wahid — for not preventing the bloodshed.
On Friday, hundreds of gun-toting militiamen staged a show of force in a West Timor village where U.N. officials fear the militants killed 20 people. On Saturday, there was no sign of the gun-toting militias.
Meanwhile, human rights groups called for an international investigation into the killing of the three U.N. foreign aid workers.
“I think it is quite evident that Indonesian authorities are not in control in West Timor,” said Norwegian Col. Brynar Nymo, spokesman for U.N. peacekeepers in the East Timorese capital of Dili.
At the Pentagon briefing, the senior defense official made it clear that military-to-military contact between the United States and Indonesia, which was suspended late last year, will not resume unless the situation changes, and the Indonesian government makes a concerted effort to bring the militias under control.
“If necessary reforms and actions are taken, we would like to re-engage with the (Indonesian) military,” the official said. “But that will take place only after certain actions take place in Indonesia, and after consultations with the Congress.”
The main step U.S. officials want to see is for Indonesian authorities to provide a more secure and stable situation in West Timor.
“Certainly, what is taking place there now is not adequate,” the defense official said.
While in Korea, Cohen will attend the latest in a series of Security Consultative Meetings that stretch back more than 30 years, and he will meet with President Kim Dae Jung and other senior South Korean officials.
The Pentagon official said Cohen will have an opportunity to meet with some U.S. troops, but details of those visits were unavailable.
Cohen also will make a courtesy call in Tokyo to discuss a range of strategic bilateral and regional issues, including the proposed relocation of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa, as well as the broader issue of reducing the U.S. military “footprint” on the island.
Several high-profile incidents over the past few years involving U.S. Marines, including sexual assaults, have inflamed relations with local Okinawans.
In the Philippines, the first stop of the trip, the defense official said Cohen will meet with senior host nation officials to continue a process of “reinvigorating” the U.S. relationship with that nation, which has grown distant at times in the years since the closure of Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base.
Cohen’s trip was planned long before Muslim rebels in the Philippines kidnapped an American on Aug. 28.
While the issue might come up in Cohen’s talks with Philippine officials, the defense official stressed that the Pentagon chief is not going to that country specifically because of the hostage situation.
“This is a matter of great concern,” the official said. “But we do not negotiate, we do not pay ransom for hostages and we hope that situation can be resolved through consultations and talks.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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