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In 2006, the Bush administration removed remaining TNI restrictions for training, supplying weapons and other forms of cooperation. In late 2007, it told Congress it planned to train members of Kopassas and Brimob (mobile brigade), Indonesia's militarized police special operations unit, also notorious for committing well-documented human rights atrocities throughout the country.
On March 18, 2010, in an open letter to President Obama, the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) welcomed his upcoming visit, rescheduled for June, urging him "to avoid the destructive policies of the past" - specifically, "not offer(ing) military assistance (to the) notorious Kopassus special forces," restricting it to other forms of security cooperation.
ETAN believes "training Kopassas would violate US law which forbids training military units with unresolved human rights violations." It's meant to prevent future ones and encourage resolving others in the past. "This has clearly not happened."
Calling Kopassus training "a bad idea whose time has not come," ETAN's National Coordinator, John M. Miller said:
"Training Kopassas will set back efforts to achieve accountability for past and recent human rights violations and will do little or nothing to discourage future crimes....It's impossible to credit Kopassas with human rights reform when it retains active duty soldiers convicted of human rights violations....For decades, the US military provided training and other assistance to Kopassas, despite the demonstrated failure of international assistance to improve its behavior. Its widely acknowledged abuses and criminal activity simply continued" to this day.
Kopassas and Brimob have a long history of terrorizing civilians, committing atrocities, and undermining efforts for justice and human rights accountability. ETAN asked Obama to respect US law and the recommendation of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste (CAVR), urging nations to make military sales conditional on recipients' adherence to international human rights laws. TNI, (including Kopassas) and Brimob systematically violate them.
Since its 1952 founding, Kopassas has an unbroken reign of terror record that includes politically motivated arrests, assassinations/murders, massacres, brutal beatings, kidnappings/disappearances, bombings, and other crimes against humanity, still ongoing throughout the country.
On March 21, investigative journalist Allan Nairn reported that:
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