Journalist Allan Nairn Facing
Possible Arrest in Indonesia for Exposing US-Backed Forces Assassinated
Civilians
www.democracynow.org/, March 24,
2010
In Indonesia, investigative journalist
Allan Nairn is facing possible arrest for exposing that US-backed
Indonesian armed forces assassinated a series of civilian activists
last year. Since Allan Nairn broke the news of the assassination
program on Democracy Now! on Friday, the Indonesian press has
been buzzing with the allegations. A military spokesman told the
Jakarta Globe that the military is considering legal action against
Nairn. Earlier today, Nairn issued a public challenge to the Indonesian
military to arrest him so that he could face off with the military
in open court.
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama is taking
what many human rights activists consider to be a huge step backward
with Indonesia. News is breaking about the role of the Indonesian
military in the murder of political activists in the province
of Aceh last year in the lead-up to local elections there. Investigative
journalist Allan Nairn is facing possible arrest for the exposé
that shows the US-backed Indonesian armed forces assassinated
a series of civilian activists last year.
The story is breaking at a time when the
White House is engaged in fierce behind-the-scenes negotiations
with Congress on whether to restore aid to the Indonesian military,
including one of its most notorious elements, the special forces
command known as Kopassus. President Obama had been scheduled
to visit Indonesia this week, but the trip was postponed until
June due to the healthcare debate.
Since Allan Nairn broke the news of the
assassination program here on Democracy Now! last Friday, the
Indonesian press has been buzzing with the allegations. A military
spokesman told the Jakarta Globe that the military is considering
legal action against Allan Nairn. Earlier today, Allan issued
a public threat-a public challenge to the Indonesian military
to arrest him so that he could face off with the military in open
court.
Allan Nairn is no stranger to the Indonesian
military. In 1991, Allan and I survived a massacre in East Timor,
when more than 270 Timorese were killed by US-backed Indonesian
soldiers. In 1999, Allan sneaked back into East Timor and reported
on the Indonesian military atrocities there as the Indonesian
soldiers burned much of East Timor to the ground. They arrested
Allan, but he continued reporting from prison.
Well, last night we reached Allan in Indonesia
to discuss the latest developments.
ALLAN NAIRN: In the article, I described
how the Indonesian armed forces, which are armed and trained by
the United States, have been running a program of assassinating
political activists, and I described in detail their assassinations
in Aceh in 2009 in the run-up to the local elections there, where
at least eight activists for the pro-independence PA, Partai Aceh,
were assassinated. And I quote senior Indonesian officials saying
that these assassinations were coordinated on the regional level
by a general named Sunarko, a Kopassus general. I reached Sunarko
on the phone, and he acknowledged to me that his men were involved
in these assassinations. But he said, "But that doesn't necessarily
mean that this was a project of the military as an institution."
He also, this general who ran the assassination
program, told me that he was an enthusiastic supporter of President
Obama's plan to restore full aid to the Indonesian armed forces,
and he then went on to describe in detail his own training by
the United States. He says they've been training him since the
1980s. He regards them as close partners, and he loves Obama's
plan because he says it will make the partnership still more intimate,
in his words. General Sunarko, the Kopassus general who in Timor
in 1999 helped run the militias that burned 80 percent of the
buildings in Timor, that conducted church massacres, etc., and
who now has been running this assassinations program in Aceh,
he said that he was trained by the US military, the US Pacific
Command, mobile training teams in jungle warfare, logistics and
many other subjects, and he said that he was most recently trained
by the US in 2006. So he's a very enthusiastic backer of Obama's
plan to restore aid for the US military, and specifically for
Kopassus, the special forces, the most notorious unit of that
military.
Now, in response to this-a few hours ago,
this story broke in the Indonesian press. It ran on TV. The government
press agency put out a series of stories about it. Kompas, the
main newspaper, had five or six stories about it. And the Indonesian
army is now threatening to arrest me. They apparently are threatening
to charge me with criminal defamation, which, under various Indonesian
laws, can carry a sentence of four to six years.
And I welcome this threat. I just put
out a statement on my website saying I welcome this threat. They
should arrest me, so that we can face-have a face-off in open
court. And we'll describe in open court, before the Indonesian
public, how the Indonesian armed forces are assassinating civilians.
I'll detail the massacres, the disappearances, etc. And I will
attempt to call TNI generals as witnesses and question them under
oath and will also attempt to call US officials as witnesses-US
officials from the White House, the CIA, the Pentagon, the State
Department-and ask them, under oath, to tell the Indonesian public
in a trial why they have been giving arms and training, year after
year after year, to an Indonesian armed forces as they've been
killing civilians.
As the US has seen the results of their
arming and training of people like General Sunarko of thousands
of other top officers, the US has continued to pour in weapons
and training to facilitate these murders. So I want to get a chance
to put the CIA station chiefs, the US military attachés
to Indonesia, the generals from the Pentagon, the national security
advisers-maybe the presidents, if that's legally possible-put
them on the stand here in Indonesia in court and ask them, under
oath, "Why did you do this? Why have you done this to the
civilians of Indonesia?" and ask the same questions to Indonesian
generals. So I'm challenging the Indonesian military, if they're
serious, if they really believe their own denials, I'm challenging
them to arrest me.
AMY GOODMAN: But, Allan, you're talking
about President Obama saying he's going to restore aid to Kopassus
and the Indonesian military. These killings took place in 2009.
Were they getting the aid then?
ALLAN NAIRN: The Indonesian military has
always been getting aid from the US. After the Dili massacre in
'91, which we survived, the activist movement which grew up, including
the East Timor Action Network, we succeeded in cutting off much
of the aid, and especially after the 1999 massacre in Timor, after
the Timorese voted for independence, almost all it was cut off.
But there's always been some. And over recent years, it has been
slowly restored.
And right now, the Indonesian defense
ministry claims that 2,800 Indonesian military people are right
now getting training in the United States. The US is now selling
some weapons and equipment to the armed forces. The CIA and US-various
covert US units have extensive programs going on with the Indonesian
military and police. So, yes, they're getting US backing right
now.
And Obama wants to strengthen that backing.
If Obama succeeds in going ahead with his plan, if he's not stopped
by Congress and the US public, this will effectively be the ultimate
green light to the Indonesian armed forces and their dreaded special
forces, Kopassus, a green light to go ahead and do what they want
to the Indonesian public. And many of the survivors of their terror
are very worried about this.
AMY GOODMAN: We return to my interview
with investigative journalist Allan Nairn in Indonesia, facing
possible arrest for exposing that US-backed Indonesian armed forces
assassinated a series of civilian activists last year. The Indonesian
military has publicly denied Allan's report.
A spokesman for the armed forces, Air
Vice Marshal Sagom Tamboen, told the Jakarta Globe that the military
is considering filing a legal complaint against Nairn. Sagom said,
quote, "If he is a good journalist and if he does have evidence,
then he should come forward with the information that he hasBut
the problem is that [Nairn] hasn't been able to give us any clear
evidence or tell us who his sources are. So how can we believe
him?" unquote.
Well, I asked Allan Nairn to respond to
Sagom's comments.
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, first, he should read
the article. The article lays out evidence. For example, the Indonesian
police made a deal with the military and some other Indonesian
officials, who stumbled across this assassination program and
who weren't supposed to know about it, and they actually detained
a number of the low-level military and military-sponsored hit
men who carried out one of the assassinations, the assassination
of a man named Tumijan, who was a palm oil from Nagan Raya in
Aceh. In that case, an officer named Captain Wahyu, a soldier
named Oktavianus, and at least seven militia members, who work
for the TNI, are under detention. I name them in my piece. The
commander of the Aceh police confirmed to me, on the record-Police
General Aditya confirmed to me, on the record, that these men
had in fact been detained for these murders. General Sunarko,
the Kopassus general who ran the assassination program, also confirmed
to me that his subordinates had been detained for the Tumijan
murder. That's as specific as you can get.
Yet, in their response, the Indonesian
military doesn't even mention these detentions, and neither does
the Indonesian press, as far as I've been able to see so far.
There seems to be some fear about reporting-about getting that
specific about reporting the full facts about these military assassinations.
AMY GOODMAN: Allan Nairn, I want to play
for you President Obama being interviewed-I believe this was last
Thursday, in the height of the healthcare debate. He had just-was
just going to be announcing that he would be delaying his trip
to Indonesia. But he did do an interview with Indonesian television.
This is what he had to say.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Obviously, there
has been some controversy, in terms of military assistance in
the past, but since the advent of democracy in Indonesia, what
you've seen is the TNI make significant progress, separating itself
out from the police, focusing more on broad external security
issues, as opposed to internal security issues. And so, we've
already begun more interactions, and our hope is, is that we can
continue to improve on that front.
REPORTER: Is that a signal that your administration
is satisfied with the military reforms and the resolution of the
past human rights abuses in Indonesia?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Well, I think
that the-we have acknowledge that those past human rights abuses
existed. And so, we can't go forward without looking backwards
and understanding that that was an enormous problem, not just
for America, but it was a problem for the Indonesian people. We
have seen significant progress, and so what we want to do is to
continue to improve our consultation and move this forward into
a more positive direction, because we want Indonesia to be a close
partner for many years to come, and we want a prosperous and secure
Indonesia.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you respond, Allan Nairn,
to what President Obama has said?
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, Obama is saying these-he's
saying these crimes were in the distant past. These assassinations
that I'm just reporting happened while Obama was president. They
happened while Obama was president, while he was presiding over
the training of, according to the Indonesian defense ministry,
thousands of Indonesian military people. While he was shipping
weapons and equipment to the Indonesian military, they were assassinating
a political activist in Aceh, as Obama was sitting in the White
House. So this is not a thing of the past.
Secondly, when he refers to external security
issues that the Indonesian armed forces are focusing on, I would
challenge the President to name one. There is absolutely no external
security threat to Indonesia. Singapore is not about to invade.
Australia is not about to invade. What the Indonesian armed forces
are focusing on is what they've always focused on: the internal
repression of the population. And now it's most intensive in the
eastern part of the country, in Papua, which is under de facto
occupation. But also, they were doing these-they've been doing
these political assassinations in Aceh. So what Obama says is
just false.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Allan, President
Obama says he will be going to Indonesia in June. What is happening
between now and then? How set in stone is the resumption of aid
to the Indonesian military?
ALLAN NAIRN: Well, that's a good question.
The pact, the aid deal, has not yet been announced. It was due
to be announced when Obama was due to be here, in fact probably
would have been announced yesterday. And now it's a bit up in
the air. So if the US public and Congress would weigh in now and
demand that Obama stop all aid to Kopassus, stop all aid to the
Indonesian armed forces, there is some chance that this package
could be defeated or cut back. So this is an opportunity. The
delay of Obama's trip is an opportunity to save some lives, prevent
some further murders in Indonesia, by again cutting off US aid
to this military.
AMY GOODMAN: Investigative journalist
Allan Nairn speaking from Indonesia, again facing arrest.
Amy
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