http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-tries-to-slip-round-ban-on-kopassus-20100303-pj4q.html
US tries to slip round ban on Kopassus JOHN POMFRET March 4, 2010 WASHINGTON: As Barack Obama prepares to travel to Indonesia, his administration is seeking to reverse a 12-year-old ban on training an elite unit of the Indonesian military whose members have been convicted of beatings, kidnappings and other abuses. And in further evidence of a new US approach in South-East Asia, the administration has begun an aggressive campaign to try to persuade the Burmese junta to stop buying North Korean military technology. The administration is floating a plan to test a training program for younger members of the Indonesian Komando Pasukan Khusus, or Kopassus. Four members of the force, including its commanding general, Major-General Lodewijk Paulus, are in Washington to discuss the proposal, several sources said. ''The details are still being worked out,'' a spokesman for the Indonesian embassy said. The Obama administration's move reflects a desire to improve ties with Indonesia and South-East Asian countries as part of its efforts to counter China's rise. In seeking to strengthen ties with Kopassus, the Obama administration is going further than its predecessor, which attempted to resume training operations with Kopassus but was warned off by a State Department ruling in 2008. Under a 1997 law, the US is banned from training foreign military units with a history of human rights violations unless the government in question is taking effective measures to bring those responsible to justice. The Obama administration is seeking to thread that needle, sources said, by training and conducting joint exercises only with Kopassus soldiers who, because of their age, could not have been involved in its earlier abuses. (Australian forces now train Kopassus soldiers, in human rights issues among other things.) There is some opposition to the new policy, though, from within Mr Obama's own party. There is also unease about the administration's decision in October to end the Bush-era policy of isolating Burma's military junta. So far, senior US officials have had four meetings with their Burmese counterparts, and a fifth is expected soon. The Washington Post [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
