Agence France Presse

Jakarta, February 18:

Indonesia today welcomed efforts by the United States to restore full military training ties with Jakarta, saying the time was ripe to resume links that were downgraded 13 years ago. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Washington yesterday that she was in the final stages of consultations with Congress on certifying Indonesia as eligible for the International Military Education and Training program. “I think it’s a good time to do that,” she said, citing what she called Indonesia’s “successful” presidential election last year and cooperation in investigation of the 2002 murder of two Americans in Indonesia. In Jakarta, foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said a full resumption of the training program would serve as a “correction for an anomaly” that had hindered relations between the two countries. “Now is the best time for the United States and Indonesia to restore military relations as two democratic countries,” he told journalists here. The administration of President George W Bush has been eager to restore military links with Indonesia, largely to help combat terrorism, but has so far run into a reluctant Congress.

Indonesia was suspended from the training programme in 1992 in view of concerns over its human rights record. Washington stepped up sanctions in 1999 after the Indonesian army killed some 1,500 people during East Timor’s independence campaign. Ties soured further in 2002 when the army was accused of blocking a US inquiry into the killing of two US schoolteachers in Indonesia’s Papua province.