National

Indonesia Urges US Government to Revoke Military Embargo
16 Januari 2004

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Indonesian Government has urged the US Government to immediately revoke its military embargo on Indonesia.


“We hope that the military embargo will soon be revoked. We have to move forward,” Dino Patti Djalal, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director for North and Central America, told reporters at the Graha Niaga building , Jakarta, on Friday (16/1).


According to Dino, the military embargo imposed by the US Government on Indonesia included both military education as well as non-fatal and fatal military equipment.


However, the US Government has now revoked its embargo on military education and non-fatal military equipment.


The remaining embargo is on fatal military equipment.


In order to revoke this embargo, Dino said, the US Government has requested the Indonesian Government to be held accountable over East Timor issues.


However, the Indonesian Government considers issues regarding East Timor are over and the relationship between Indonesia and East Timor has greatly improved.


“Why does the US Government still feel difficult to normalize its military relationship with us while it does not have much interest in East Timor,” asked Dino.


As regards the Timika incident, in which two US citizens were killed, Dino said he did not consider this matter to be hampering the normalization of military relations between Indonesia and the USA.


He went on to say that he also hoped this matter would soon be settled.


“This is a matter of justice, human rights and law enforcement. Let’s not forget that Indonesian citizens were also shot in the Timika incident,” said Dino.

Muhamad Fasabeni - Tempo News Room