Indonesia Human Rights Committee

Box 68-419

Auckland

4 March, 2007

Defence Cooperation with Indonesia Condemned

The Indonesia Human Rights Committee condemns the New Zealand Government decision to resume defence cooperation with Indonesia, beginning with an invitation to an Indonesian officer to attend the NZDF Command and Staff College course this year.  Defence ties have been suspended since September 1999 when horrific violence engulfed East Timor. 

“We are appalled that this significant policy shift was not subject to any debate with either the New Zealand public or parliament,” said Maire Leadbeater speaking for the Indonesia Human Rights Committee.  “Government did not even see fit to make an announcement.  Instead a sentence was inserted into a speech given by Winston Peters on 13 December 2006 to the Centre for Strategic Studies conference at Victoria University.”

“Why is the New Zealand Government overlooking the Indonesian military’s ongoing responsibility for human rights violations especially in conflict areas such as West Papua and Poso?  In West Papua a programme of military expansion is under way, and military intimidation has displaced thousands of people in the Puncak Jaya region.”

“There has been no accounting for a 24 year brutal occupation of East Timor and only one person, East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres has been held to account for the 1999 maelstrom of violence.” 

“Has the Government forgotten that the Indonesian military is responsible for the deaths of 3 New Zealanders – Gary Cunningham (1975), Kamal Bamadhaj (1991) and Leonard Manning (2000). No commander has been held responsible for the litany of historic military abuses and massacres that have been documented when Aceh was under military rule, and numerous military killings of pro-democracy activists remain unaccounted for.”

Timor-Leste’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) recommended that no state should resume military cooperation with Indonesia until there has been genuine ‘progress towards full democratisation, the subordination of the military to the rule of law and civilian government and strict adherence with international human rights, including respect for the right of self-determination.’

The New Zealand Government should heed this recommendation, instead of restoring defence.

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