Jakarta wants weapons. Lots of them.
Indonesia’s Arms Appetite
read more
Aceh
Enabling the Indonesian Military
This is a tale about politics, influence, money and murder. It began more than 40 years ago with a bloodletting so massive that no one quite knows how many people died. Half a million? A million? Through four decades, the story of the relationship between the United States and the Indonesian military has left a trail of misery and terror. Last month it claimed four peasants, one of them a 27-year-old mother. Unless Congress puts the brakes on the Bush administration’s plans to increase aid and training for the Indonesian army, there will be innumerable victims in the future as well.
Phoenix Rising? Will the Bush Administration’s Actions Move Aceh Toward Peace or a Continued Descent Into Destruction?
Aceh, so long isolated from international view by the Indonesian government and military, is now—tragically—at the center of world attention. Members of the U.S. Congress and their staff, U.N. officials, journalists, and humanitarian aid workers have arrived on the scene after years of blocked access. These shifts offer the Bush administration and other actors an unprecedented opportunity for peace-building and enhancement of human security and stability in a region dominated by violent conflict for decades.
“Response to ‘Rethinking Iraq'”
Erik Leaver writes in response to Lakshmi Chaudhry’s ‘Rethinking Iraq,’ posted January 6, 2005. Leaver is the policy outreach director for the Foreign Policy In Focus project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C.