Welcome to the new junta. The Indonesia military is now fully in control of Indonesia and is free to continue abusing opposition figures, activists, students, and indigenous people. The U.S., of course, has opened its arms (in more ways than one) to the new "government"--and actually prefers that the Indonesia military "maintain stability," rather than allow elections any time in the near future.

General Wiranto, who is now both Defense Minister and head of the armed forces, orchestrated Suharto's resignation and the swearing in of Jusuf Habibie. New President Habibie, an ex-errand boy for Boeing, has no political base and little practical experience. He served as Suharto's Minister of Research and Technology--the official title for a leech who sucks money from the state coffers to fund a disastrously unprofitable airplane company and several other grandiose, high-tech development schemes (in a rural nation where the population worries about having enough food, fuel, and clean drinking water). Clearly, Habibie is the military's choice for an easily controllable puppet president.

Immediately after the ceremonies, General Wiranto declared that the military would continue to support the economic interests of Suharto's family and business associates. Habibie's new cabinet includes many of Suharto's old ministers. The tone is exemplified by Lt. Gen. Yunus Yosfiah, who as military unit commander in East Timor in 1975 ordered the execution of five foreign journalists covering the military's invasion and subsequent atrocities; he is now, remarkably, the new Minister of Information.

The U.S. State Department is urging dissidents to cut deals with the Indonesian military, and the U.S. press is busy spreading the lie that the Indonesian military is more fit to govern (and more popular among Indonesians) than the opposition groups. In reality, the Indonesian military is one of the most hated and feared human rights violators in the region--and they've learned their tricks from the U.S. military.

Allan Nairn, a reporter for (among others) The Nation, has uncovered formal links between the CIA, U.S. military intelligence, and Indonesia's armed forces (ABRI), especially their secret intelligence units. There are two groups most involved in the torture and disappearance of dissidents in Indonesia: BAKIN, an umbrella group similar to our own CIA, and BIA, the military's own intelligence agency. Both have carried out extensive abductions, torture, and "disappearances" of activists, journalists, students, human rights workers, labor leaders, and opposition politicians.

General Benny Murdani, the former commander of the Indonesian armed forces (ABRI) and the former Defense Minister until 1993, admitted that the relationship included regular exchanges of information and consultations at senior levels. The BAKIN works with the CIA, while the BIA accepts assistance from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

Even U.S. officials acknowledge the connections. While a recent U.S. State Department human rights report detailed the BIA's use of electroshock torture, U.S. officials told Nairn that BAKIN continues to enjoy a formal "liaison" relationship with the CIA. The BIA coordinates on a daily basis with Colonel Charles McFetridge at the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, and makes periodic contacts with senior Pentagon chiefs in Washington, DC. When Secretary of Defense William Cohen visited Jakarta in January of this year to meet with Suharto and military leaders, he also met with the commanders of BAKIN and BIA, as well as General Prabowo Subianto (a relative of Suharto's), who is the head of the notorious KOPASSUS, a commando regiment also responsible for acts of murder and torture. Cohen refused to disavow the human rights violations of Indonesia's intelligence units, responding: "I am not going to give him [Suharto] guidance in terms of what he should or should not do in terms of maintaining control of his own country." Yet, the U.S. government continued to give material support and training to these butchers.

For example, KOPASSUS groups have been trained by the Pentagon's Joint Combined Exchange and Training (JCET) program, which operated in secret and in violation of Congress's ban on training and support for the Indonesian military. Indonesia was finally dropped from the JCET program on May 8, 1998, only after Nairn, several human rights groups (including the East Timor Action Network), and Rep. Lane Evans exposed the program's illegal activities.

The U.S. has blood on its hands, not only from Suharto's coup in 1966, which succeeded with the help of the CIA, or the 1975 annexation of East Timor, facilitated by U.S. weapons shipments, defense funding, and training for the Indonesian military, but also from the continual, day-to-day support for the disappearance, torture, and death of the very people who strive the hardest for freedom and democracy in Indonesia. Until the U.S. people demand that our government and military cease its support for dictators abroad, Indonesia--and many others--will remain under the yoke of oppression.

--Maria Tomchick

To learn more about Indonesia and East Timor and to help with efforts to end U.S. support for the Indonesian military regime, contact the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) at 206-633-2836 or check out ETAN's new web site: http://etan.org.