Senate Restricts Arms to Indonesia
http://www.clw.org/archive/atop/atn/atn1098.html#Senate Restricts
On September 3, the Senate voted to prohibit the transfer of lethal military equipment and helicopters to the government of Indonesia if that equipment is intended for use in East Timor. The Indonesian military invaded East Timor in December 1975 and six months later announced the territory was formally part of Indonesia. International human rights groups estimate that 200,000 East Timorese, one-third of the population, have been killed by Indonesian troops in the intervening years.
The vote was praised by rights groups. Support of the ban shows that the "Senate finds the Indonesian occupation of East Timor unacceptable," according to Lynn Fredriksson of the East Timor Action Network. The bill "language increases the pressure on Indonesia to comply with international law," she noted.
The measure blocking the use of American military equipment in East Timor is contained in the fiscal 1999 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.
The Indonesian military's threat to human rights and democracy
http://www.asia-pacific-action.org/statements/statements2congressionalhearing_100305.htm
Following the Indonesian military's invasion of East Timor in 1975, an estimated 200,000 East Timorese, one quarter of the population, died as a consequence of living conditions in TNI-organized re-location camps or as direct victims of Indonesian security force violence.
Even with the end of the cold war, the US embrace of the dictator Soeharto and his military continued as if US policy were on auto pilot.
That relationship endured largely unquestioned until 1991 when the Indonesian military was caught on film by US journalists slaughtering peaceful East Timorese demonstrators. The murder of over 270 East Timorese youth by Indonesian soldiers bearing US-provided M-16's so shocked the US Congress that in 1992 it imposed tight restrictions on further US military-to-military aid, including training for the Indonesian military.
Tentara Nasional Indonesia - (TNI) Indonesian army
US trains Indonesia torturers
March 18, 1998
The American military is training Indonesian special forces units which have been charged with torture and murder of civilians, according to a report which appeared Monday, March 16 in The Nation magazine. The training is continuing despite a congressional ban imposed in 1992 after reports of extensive human rights abuses in East Timor.
http://www.angelfire.com/rock/hotburrito/tni/wsws180398.html
Pentagon officials confirmed that US military personnel were engaged in training of the commando unit called Kopassus, or Red Berets, which has been deployed against street demonstrators in Jakarta, as well as another elite group known as Kostrad, which occupies central Java, and Suharto's presidential guard.