Asian War Games.(Brief Article)

The United States has had virtually no contact with the Indonesian armed forces, or TNI, for three years. Washington, fed up with the military's alleged human-rights abuses, has banned equipment sales and cut off military aid and training help. So why did FBI Director Robert Mueller pay a visit to Jakarta recently, meeting with officials from the Justice Ministry and other agencies? And why is Peter Brookes, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of Defense, going to Indonesia next week for a two-day U.S.-Indonesia Security Dialogue? Brookes will meet with, among others, Maj. Gen. Edi Sudrajat, the armed forces' director- general of strategy.

The answer is that the United States has grown increasingly worried that Southeast Asia is a refuge for terrorists. Last week Malaysia arrested 14 suspected members of a militant group linked to Al Qaeda. Other suspected Islamic radicals have been nabbed in Singapore and the Philippines. Indonesia is not a major trouble spot yet--but with the world's largest Muslim population, porous borders, several radical Islamic groups and a streak of anti-Americanism, it has the potential to become one. So Washington is taking small steps to re-establish security relations with the Indonesian military. It's a sensitive issue because Washington must balance its strong desire to see Jakarta reform its armed forces (chiefly by putting them under civilian command) with the new need for Indonesia to take a tougher stance against radical groups within its borders. Any sign that Washington is starting to cozy up to the TNI is likely to draw criticism from proponents of reform--in both Indonesia and the United States. "It would symbolically and psychologically boost the TNI, and be a bad sign for democratic reforms," says Kusmanto Anggoro, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Jakarta-based think tank.

The United States has no plans to send troops or military advisers to Indonesia. A Pentagon spokesman says that Brookes will "certainly" discuss counterterrorism activities with Indonesian officials, "but it's not the main focus [of the meeting]. It's not a planning session for military-to-military contacts." U.S. congressional concerns about the TNI, and Indonesia's sensitivity to American pushiness, make overt cooperation a nonstarter. "There would be serious blowback on the streets [if that happened]," says David L. Phillips of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "I don't think it's desirable to have an American presence on the ground, not even training. What's desirable is to have Indonesia's security apparatus function effectively and abide by constitutional limits ...