JAKARTA, March 11 (Bernama) -- The United States Secretary of State has said the United States deeply regrets
the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential, "including private discussions between
counterparts
or our diplomats personal assessments and observations", Indonesia''s Antara news agency reported.
The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, passed on her statement to the US ambassador to Indonesia, Scot Marciel,
according to a press release from the US Embassy in Jakarta, Friday,
Hillary Clinton also said that the Department of State does not comment on materials, including classified documents,
which may have been leaked.
According to the release, the US official foreign policy is not set through these messages, but in Washington.
"Our official foreign policy is not set through these messages, but in Washington. Our policy is a matter
of public record, as reflected in our statements and our actions around the world," said Marciel.
Further, Marciel said that any unauthorised disclosure of classified information by Wikileaks has harmful implications
for the lives of identified individuals that are jeopardised, but also for global engagement among and between
nations.
"Given its potential impact, we condemn such unauthorized disclosures and are taking every step to prevent
future security breaches," he said.
"While we cannot speak to the authenticity of any documents provided to the press, we can speak to the diplomatic
community`s practice of cable writing. By its very nature, field reporting to Washington is candid and often raw
information," he said.
Ambassador Marciel also said that it is preliminary, often incomplete and unsubstantiated. It is not an expression
of policy, nor does it always shape final policy decisions. These documents should not be seen as having standing
on their own or as representing US policy.
"This type of publication is extremely irresponsible and we express our deepest regrets to President Yudhoyono
and the Indonesian people," Marciel said.
As President Obama has noted, the United States is fortunate to have a very strong partner in Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia`s first directly elected president, and a leader who has guided Indonesia through
its journey into democracy, he added.
According to Marciel, Susilo`s leadership has been vital to promoting prosperity, expanding partnerships between
the two nations` peoples, and deepening political and security cooperation.
"As the US President Barack Obama said in Jakarta during his visit in November 2010 to jointly launch with
President Susilo Yudhoyono the Comprehensive Partnership, Indonesia and the United States are bound together by
a web of historical, cultural, and economic ties that span the Pacific and by our shared values and aspirations,
and our partnership is one of equals, grounded in mutual interests and mutual respect," he stated.
Written by Philip Dorling
Friday, 11 March 2011
US embassy in Jakarta has serious doubts about the Indonesian president's own integrity
When Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a surprise victory in Indonesia's 2004 presidential elections, the United States
Embassy in Jakarta hailed it as "a remarkable triumph of a popular, articulate figure against a rival [incumbent
president Megawati Sukarnoputri] with more power, money, and connections."
The former army general and security minister has gone on to win international accolades for strengthening governance,
promoting economic reform, and his efforts to suppress the Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah.
While visiting Jakarta last November, US President Barack Obama applauded Indonesia's democracy and "the leadership
of my good friend President Yudhoyono."
However Yudhoyono's record may have to be reviewed after secret US embassy cables, leaked to WikiLeaks and provided
to Fairfax Media, reveal allegations of corruption and abuse of power that extend all the way to the presidential
palace.
According to the diplomatic cables, Yudhoyono, widely known by his initials SBY, personally intervened to influence
prosecutors and judges to protect corrupt political figures and put pressure on his adversaries. He reportedly
also used the Indonesian intelligence service to spy on rivals and, on at least one occasion, a senior minister
in his own government.
Yudhoyono's former vice-president reportedly paid out millions of dollars to buy control of Indonesia's largest
political party, while the President's wife and her family have allegedly moved to enrich themselves on the basis
of their political connections.
The US embassy's political reporting, much of it classified "Secret/NoForn" meaning for American eyes
only makes clear that the continuing influence of money politics, which extends, despite the President's public
commitment to combating corruption, to Yudhoyono himself.
The US embassy cables reveal that one of Yudhoyono's early presidential actions was to personally intervene in
the case of Taufik Kiemas, the husband of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri. Taufik reportedly used his continuing
control of his wife's Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI-P) to broker protection from prosecution for what the US
diplomats described as "legendary corruption during his wife's tenure."
Taufik has been publicly accused, though without charges being laid against him, of improper dealings in massive
infrastructure projects heavily tainted with corruption. He is believed to have profited from deals relating to
the US$2.3billion Jakarta Outer Ring Road project, the US$2.4 billion double-track railway project from Merak in
West Java to Banyuwangi in East Java, the US$2.3billion trans-Kalimantan highway, and the US$1.7 billion trans-Papua
highway.
In December 2004, the US embassy in Jakarta reported to Washington that one of its most valued political informants,
senior presidential adviser TB Silalahi, had advised that Indonesia's Assistant Attorney-General, Hendarman Supandji,
who was then leading the new government's anti-corruption campaign, had gathered "sufficient evidence of the
corruption of former first gentleman Taufik Kiemas to warrant Taufik's arrest."
However, Silalahi, one of Yudhoyono's closest political confidants, told the US embassy that the president "had
personally instructed Hendarman not to pursue a case against Taufik."
No legal proceedings were brought against the former "first gentleman," who remains an influential political
figure and is now speaker of Indonesia's parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly.
While Yudhoyono protected Taufik from prosecution, his then vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, allegedly paid what the
US embassy described as "enormous bribes" to win the chairmanship of Golkar, Indonesia's largest political
party, during a December 2004 party congress, US diplomats observed firsthand.
"According to multiple sources close to the major candidates, Kalla's team offered district boards at least
Rp200 million (over US$22,000) for their votes," the US embassy reported. "Provincial boards which
had the same voting right, but also could influence subordinate district boards received Rp500 million or more.
According to one contact with prior experience in such matters, board officials received down payments ...and would
expect full payment from the winner, in cash, within hours of the vote."
US diplomats reported that, with 243 votes required to win a majority, the Golkar chairmanship would have cost
more than US$6 million.
"One contact claimed that [then Indonesian House of Representatives chairman Agung Laksono] alone not the
wealthiest of Kalla's backers had allocated (if not actually spent) Rp50 billion (more than US$5.5 million )
on the event." The US embassy cables further allege that Yudhoyono had then cabinet secretary Sudi Silalahi
"intimidate" at least one judge in a 2006 court case arising from a fight for control of former president
Abdurahman Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB). According to the embassy's contacts, Sudi told the judge "if
the court were to help [Wahid] it would be like helping to overthrow the government."
The intervention of "SBY's right-hand man" was not successful in a direct sense because, according to
embassy sources with close ties to the PKB and lawyers involved in the case, Wahid's supporters paid the judges
Rp3 billion in bribes for a verdict that awarded control of PKB to Wahid instead of a dissident faction. However,
Yudhoyono's strategic objective was achieved as external pressure on Wahid's "precarious position" forced
the PKB to reposition itself to support the administration.
Other US embassy reports indicate that Yudhoyono has used the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to spy
on both his political allies and opponents.
The president reportedly also got BIN to spy on rival presidential candidates. This practice appears to have begun
while Yudhoyono was serving as co-ordinating minister of political and security affairs in former president Megawati's
government. He directed the intelligence service to report on former army commander and Golkar presidential candidate
Wiranto. Subsequently, at a meeting of Yudhoyono's cabinet, BIN chief Syamsir characterised Wiranto as a "terrorist
mastermind."
Through his own military contacts Wiranto learnt that he was the subject of "derogatory" BIN reports,
but when he complained he was told by presidential adviser TB Silalahi that no such reports existed.
The leaked US embassy cables are ambiguous on the question of whether Yudhoyono has been personally engaged
in corruption. However, US diplomats reported that at a 2006 meeting with the chairman of his own Democratic Party,
Yudhoyono "bemoaned his own failure to date to establish himself in business matters," apparently feeling
"he needed to catch up' ... [and] wanted to ensure he left a sizeable legacy for his children."
In the course of investigating the President's private, political and business interests, American diplomats noted
alleged links between Yudhoyono and Chinese-Indonesian businessmen, most notably Tomy Winata, an alleged underworld
figure and member of the "Gang of Nine" or "Nine Dragons," a leading gambling syndicate.
In 2006, Agung Laksono, now Yudhoyono's Co-ordinating Minister for People's Welfare, told US embassy officers that
TB Silalahi "functioned as a middleman, relaying funds from Winata to Yudhoyono, protecting the president
from the potential liabilities that could arise if Yudhoyono were to deal with Tomy directly."
Tomy Winata reportedly also used prominent entrepreneur Muhammad Lutfi as a channel of funding to Yudhoyono. Yudhoyono
appointed Lutfi chairman of Indonesia's Investment Co-ordinating Board.
Senior State Intelligence Agency official Yahya Asagaf also told the US embassy Tomy Winata was trying to cultivate
influence by using a senior presidential aide as his channel to first lady Kristiani Herawati.
Yudhoyono's wife and relatives also feature prominently in the US embassy's political reporting, with American
diplomats highlighting the efforts of the president's family "particularly first lady Kristiani Herawati ...to
profit financially from its political position."
In June 2006, one presidential staff member told US embassy officers Kristiani's family members were "specifically
targeting financial opportunities related to state-owned enterprises." The well-connected staffer portrayed
the President as "witting of these efforts, which his closest operators (e.g. Sudi Silalahi) would advance,
while Yudhoyono himself maintained sufficient distance that he could not be implicated."
Such is the first lady's behind-the-scenes influence that the US embassy described her as "a cabinet of one"
and "the President's undisputed top adviser."
The embassy reported: "As presidential adviser TB Silalahi told [US political officers], members of the
President's staff increasingly feel marginalised and powerless to provide counsel to the President."
Yahya Asagaf at the State Intelligence Agency privately declared the first lady's opinion to be "the only
one that matters."
Significantly, the US embassy's contacts identified Kristiani as the primary influence behind Yudhoyono's decision
to drop vice-president Kalla as his running mate in the 2009 presidential elections.
With Bank of Indonesia governor Boediono as his new vice-presidential running mate, Yudhoyono went on to an overwhelming
victory. The president secured more than 60 per cent of the vote, defeating both former president Megawati, who
had teamed up with former special forces commander Prabowo Subianto, and vice-president Kalla, who allied himself
with Wiranto.
In January 2010 the US embassy observed: "Ten years of political and economic reform have made Indonesia democratic,
stable, and increasingly confident about its leadership role in south-east Asia and the Muslim world. Indonesia
has held successful, free and fair elections; has weathered the global financial crisis; and is tackling internal
security threats."
However, America's diplomats also noted that a series of political scandals through late 2009 and into 2010 had
seriously damaged Yudhoyono's political standing.
A protracted conflict between the Indonesian police and the national Corruption Eradication Commission had damaged
the government's public anti-corruption credentials, while a parliamentary inquiry into the massive bailout of
a major financial institution, Bank Century, called into question the Vice-President's performance as former central
bank governor.
One prominent anti-corruption non-government organization privately told the US embassy that it had "credible"
information that funds from Bank Century had been used for financing Yudhoyono's re-election campaign.
Former vice-president Kalla strongly criticized the bailout, alleging that the Bank of Indonesia under Boediono
had been negligent in supervising Bank Century and arguing that the bank should have been closed as its failure
was due to fraud perpetrated by major shareholders.
Against this background the US embassy reported that Yudhoyono was increasingly "paralyzed" as his
political popularity rapidly diminished.
"Unwilling to risk alienating segments of the parliament, media, bureaucracy and civil society, Yudhoyono
has slowed reforms. He is also unwilling to cross any constituencies ...Until he is satisfied that he has shored
up his political position, Yudhoyono is unlikely to spend any political capital to move his reform agenda, or controversial
aspects of US -Indonesia relations, forward."
Over the past 13 years Indonesian democracy has undoubtedly strengthened. The Suharto dictatorship has been replaced
by a competitive political system characterized by robust debate and free media.
However, as the leaked US embassy's reports show, in what is only a glimpse of the inside workings of President
Yudhoyono's tenure, some of the secretive and corrupt habits of the Suharto years still linger in Indonesian presidential
politics.
Another version of this story appeared in The Age in Melbourne, Australia.
INDONESIA threatened to derail a visit to Jakarta by President Barack Obama earlier this year unless he overturned
the US ban on training the controversial Kopassus army special forces.
Leaked US State Department cables reveal that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono privately told the
US that continuing the ban - introduced in 1999 because of Kopassus's appalling human rights record, including
killings in East Timor and West Papua - was the ''litmus test of the bilateral relationship'' between the US and
Indonesia.
Six months later, the US agreed to resume ties with Kopassus, despite fierce criticism from some human rights groups
and American politicians about Jakarta's failure to hold officers to account for their role in atrocities.
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The cables, released by WikiLeaks exclusively to The Age, detail US concerns about Indonesia's failure to prosecute
the military personnel responsible for murder and torture during the conflicts in East Timor and Aceh.
But they also reveal that US diplomats in Jakarta believed that Mr Yudhoyono's demands should be met to ensure
that Indonesia's military and security services would protect American interests in the region, including co-operation
in the war on terror. It was also argued that closer military ties would encourage further reform of Indonesia's
military.
The Indonesian leader's call to lift the Kopassus training ban is described in a January cable from the US embassy
in Jakarta.
''President Yudhoyono (SBY) and other senior Indonesian officials have made it clear to us that SBY views the issue
of Army Special Forces (KOPASSUS) training as a litmus test of the bilateral relationship and that he believes
the visit of President Obama will not be successful unless this issue is resolved in advance of the visit,''
the cable says.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in July that the US needed to renew links with Kopassus ''as a result of
Indonesian military reforms over the past decade, the ongoing professionalisation of the TNI, and recent actions
taken by the Ministry of Defence to address human rights issues''.
An Australian expert on the Indonesian military, Australian Defence Force Academy associate professor Clinton Fernandes,
said yesterday the cables appeared to show that members of Congress such as Senator Patrick Leahy - author of the
1999 ban on training with Kopassus - ''have not been told the real reason for Obama's decision, which was to provide
photo opportunities for the President''.
''The decision to renew links shows contempt not only to the victims of gross human rights violations but to members
of the US Congress,'' Professor Fernandes said.
US diplomatic cables from the past four years reveal that Jakarta's intense lobbying to lift the Kopassus ban
was largely supported by the US embassy in Jakarta, which cited the Australian military's ties with Kopassus as
a reason to lift the ban.
An April 2007 cable says that ''our Australian counterparts often encourage us to resume training for KOPASSUS''.
However, numerous cables also detail serious US concerns about resuming ties.
In October 2007, the embassy told Washington that ''Indonesia has not prosecuted past human rights violations in
any consistent manner. While we need to keep Indonesia mindful of the consequences of inaction on TNI [Indonesian
military] accountability, Indonesia is unlikely to abandon its approach. We need therefore to encourage the Indonesian
government to take alternative steps to demonstrate accountability.''
Around the same time, another cable from the embassy noted that several high-ranking Indonesia officers had been
promoted, despite questions about their involvement in past atrocities.
''In two cases (Muis and Zamroni), officers linked to human rights violations have been promoted to key positions,''
the cable said. ''Indonesian Defense Department contacts have told us the promotions for these two were delayed
beyond the usual date because of their past activities. One case (Heryadi) may herald closer ties with China.''
Another 2007 cable details US concern about the appearance at a Kopassus anniversary celebration of Tommy Suharto,
the notorious son of the former president who served several years in prison for arranging the killing of a judge
who convicted him of fraud.
In May 2008, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, was briefed by US diplomats that
''the key impediment to expanded engagement remains the failure of the GOI [Indonesia] to press for accountability
for past human rights abuses by security forces.
''The accountability issue stopped our planned engagement with the elite Army Special Forces (KOPASSUS) dead in
its tracks and can be felt in other mil-mil [military-to-military] activities.''
The cable welcomes the Indonesian military's reforms but noted they were not ''the same as putting generals behind
bars for past human rights abuses''.
In late 2009, about six months before the US lifted its Kopassus ban, US Under-Secretary for Defence Bill Burns
told senior Indonesian officials that ''engagement with KOPASSUS continued to be a difficult and complex issue,
particularly as there remained many in Washington, including in Congress, with serious concerns about accountability
for past KOPASSUS actions''.
But the US cables also reveal the Jakarta embassy's efforts to water down the background screening that Indonesian
military officers must undergo if they undertake training in the US.
The US embassy is also revealed in another cable as heavily playing down a 2009 report by Human Rights Watch that
alleges Kopassus soldiers had committed recent human rights abuses in Papua.
The embassy called the report unbalanced and unconfirmed. It said that the abuses detailed did not appear to ''meet
the standard of gross violation of human rights''.
''In these incidents, KOPASSUS personnel allegedly beat and kicked nine Papuans inside a KOPASSUS compound Several
cases involved Papuans who were drunk or engaged in disruptive behaviour near the KOPASSUS barracks.''
THE Indonesian government has denied it threatened to derail US President Barack Obama's visit to Jakarta to pressure
Washington into lifting its ban on training its controversial Kopassus army special forces.
The US announcement in July that it would remove its 12-year moratorium on training Kopassus, which has a history
of abusing human rights, was based on mutual interest, Indonesian Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.
''In the agreement that we signed, Indonesia and the US had the same position.
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''We did not force them,'' The Jakarta Globe reported Mr Yusgiantoro saying. ''We never did such a thing. Really
there is nothing [to the reports],'' he said.
The US embassy in Jakarta also denied the reports. ''The President's visit was not conditioned on re-engagement
with Kopassus,'' spokeswoman Corina Sander said.
But WikiLeaks cables from the US State Department show Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono privately
told the US that continuing the ban was the ''litmus test'' of the relationship between the two nations.
The cables also show that US diplomats encouraged Washington to yield to Dr Yudhoyono's demands to ensure Indonesia's
military and security services would protect US interests in the region.
They show that although US diplomats in Jakarta were concerned about resuming ties because of human rights violations,
they played down credible reports by Human Rights Watch about such abuses.
''It was clear that our concerns were making them uncomfortable, but we always got a solicitous reception from
them,'' Phil Robertson, HRW's deputy director for the Asia division, said of his organisation's discussions with
the US embassy in Jakarta.
''Now what we have found as a result of WikiLeaks is that we put information out there and they were disparaging
it,'' Mr Robertson said.
INDONESIA demanded, and received, an expression of regret from the US ambassador in Jakarta yesterday as President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono emphatically denied allegations in US diplomatic cables that he and his family were implicated
in corruption.
The allegations, revealed in The Age yesterday and based on cables obtained by WikiLeaks, created a media storm
in Indonesia as the country's foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, hauled in US ambassador Scot Marciel to formally
lodge a ''strong protest''.
At an extraordinary and, at times, awkward press conference after the meeting, Mr Marciel declined to confirm or
deny the veracity of the cables or comment on the specific allegations they contained.
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But he said, generally speaking, such cables contained ''candid and often raw information'' that was ''often incomplete
and unsubstantiated''.
''We express our deepest regrets to President Yudhoyono and to the Indonesian people,'' he said, adding that
the publication of the cables was ''extremely irresponsible''.
Mr Marciel abruptly left the press conference shortly afterwards, leaving Mr Natalegawa to answer questions alone.
Dr Yudhoyono, meanwhile, said The Age had breached the ''universal journalism code of ethics'' by publishing details
of the cables without asking him for comment beforehand. ''The President is absolutely not happy with the false
coverage, full of lies, run in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age,'' according to a statement ''sent on behalf
of the President'' by his senior spokesman, Daniel Sparingga. ''The content is full of sensation and disrespect,
full of nonsense.''
The cables from the US embassy in Jakarta, sent between 2004 and 2010, contained a series of startling but unverified
allegations about the conduct of Dr Yudhoyono, his wife and family. Among the allegations were that Dr Yudhoyono
ordered a corruption investigation into political powerbroker Taufik Kiemas be dropped and that he received funds
from controversial businessman Tomy Winata via a middleman.
SECRET US diplomatic cables have implicated Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in substantial corruption
and abuse of power, puncturing his reputation as a political cleanskin and reformer.
The cables say Mr Yudhoyono has personally intervened to influence prosecutors and judges to protect corrupt political
figures and pressure his adversaries, while using the Indonesian intelligence service to spy on political rivals
and, at least once, a senior minister in his own government.
They also detail how Mr Yudhoyono's former vice-president reportedly paid millions of dollars to buy control of
Indonesia's largest political party, and accuse the President's wife and her family of seeking to enrich themselves
through their political connections.
The revelations come as Indonesian Vice-President Boediono visits Canberra today for talks with acting Prime Minister
Wayne Swan and discussions with officials on administrative change to reform Indonesia's corrupt bureaucracy.
The US diplomatic reports obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to The Age say that soon after becoming
President in 2004, Mr Yudhoyono intervened in the case of Taufik Kiemas, the husband of former president Megawati
Sukarnoputri.
Mr Taufik reportedly had used his continuing control of his wife's Indonesian Democratic Party, then the second
largest party in Indonesia's Parliament, to broker protection from prosecution for what the US diplomats described
as "legendary corruption during his wife's tenure".
In December 2004, the US embassy in Jakarta reported that one of its most valued political informants, senior presidential
adviser T.B. Silalahi, had advised that then assistant attorney-general Hendarman Supandji, who was leading the
new government's anti-corruption campaign, had gathered "sufficient evidence of the corruption of former first
gentleman Taufik Kiemas to warrant Taufik's arrest".
But Mr Silalhi, one of Mr Yudhoyono's closest political confidants, told the US embassy the President "had
personally instructed Hendarman not to pursue a case against Taufik".
No legal proceedings were brought against Mr Taufik, an influential political figure who now serves as speaker
of the People's Consultative Assembly, a largely ceremonial body representing members of parliament.
The US embassy also reported that then vice-president Jusuf Kalla allegedly paid "enormous bribes" to
win the chairmanship of Golkar, Indonesia's largest party, during a December 2004 party congress.
The President's wife and relatives feature prominently in the US embassy's political reporting, with American diplomats
highlighting efforts of the President's family "particularly first lady Kristiani Herawati . . . to profit
financially from its political position". As early as 2006 the embassy commented to Washington that "first
lady Kristiani Herawati is increasingly seeking to profit personally by acting as a broker or facilitator for business
ventures . . . Numerous contacts also tell us that Kristiani's family members have begun establishing companies
in order to commercialise their family's influence."
Highlighting the first lady's behind-the-scenes-influence, the embassy described her as "a cabinet of one"
and "the President's undisputed top adviser".
Other leaked cables indicate Mr Yudhoyono has used the Indonesian State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to spy on his
political allies and opponents.
According to a senior Indonesian intelligence officer, Mr Yudhoyono directed BIN chief Syamsir Siregar to instruct
his officers to conduct surveillance on one of the most senior cabinet ministers, State Secretary Yusril Mahendra,
while he made a secret trip to Singapore to meet Chinese businessmen.
The President also reportedly tasked BIN to spy on rival presidential candidates. Mr Silalah told US diplomats
Mr Yudhoyono "shared the most sensitive BIN reporting on political matters only with himself and Cabinet Secretary
Sudi Silalahi".
Although Mr Yudhoyono won a big victory in the 2009 election, US envoys quickly concluded he was running out of
political puff. After political controversies through late 2009 and into last year led to his popularity taking
a sharp fall, the embassy said the President was increasingly "paralysed". "Unwilling to risk alienating
segments of the Parliament, media, bureaucracy and civil society, Yudhoyono has slowed reforms," it said.
THE United States has blackballed one of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's closest advisers for alleged
involvement in East Timor war crimes, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.
But Washington kept secret the reasons for denying a visa to former Indonesian army general Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin,
and President Yudhoyono subsequently appointed his friend deputy defence minister.
In September 2009, the US withheld the issue of a visa that would allow Mr Sjamsoeddin, a former army general then
serving as a senior presidential adviser, to accompany President Yudhoyono, who was about to attend the G20 leaders
summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr Sjamsoeddin was subject to a US Department of Homeland Security recommendation
that he be denied entry owing to suspected involvement in "terror activities" and "extrajudicial
killings''.
The US embassy cables leaked to WikiLeaks, and provided exclusively to The Saturday Age, show that the US embassy
in Jakarta urged that Mr Sjamsoeddin still be allowed entry, lest the issue become an "irritant" in relations
between Jakarta and Washington.
"We note that as a key adviser to the Indonesian President and possible cabinet appointee, Sjamsoeddin's
travel to the United States would facilitate and strengthen US-Indonesian ties,'' the Jakarta embassy argued. "Sjamsoeddin
provides guidance and counsel to President Yudhoyono on a number of issues of importance to the US, such as
mil[itary]-to-mil[itary] ties, which are a cornerstone of our efforts to ensure regional stability."
The allegations against Mr Sjamsoeddin included that, while serving as an Indonesian special forces commander in
East Timor, he was responsible for directing the Santa Cruz massacre that claimed the lives of more than 250 East
Timorese pro-independence demonstrators on November 12, 1991.
It was also alleged that Mr Sjamsoeddin was responsible for widespread violence committed by Indonesian troops
in Dili after East Timor's August 30, 1999, independence ballot.
Mr Sjamsoeddin submitted a statement to the US embassy seeking to rebut the allegations, claiming that he had not
been at the Santa Cruz massacre but had been rescuing ''journalists from Timorese [Indonesian army] officials who
were angered that the journalists had accused them of being involved in clandestine activities''. Mr Sjamsoeddin
also claimed he had been cleared by Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission for any wrongdoing in relation
to the violence that swept Dili in September 1999.
Mr Sjamsoeddin's denials were accepted by the US embassy in Jakarta, which argued that "circumstantial
evidence" linking Mr Sjamsoeddin to human rights violations was insufficient to deny him a visa. But this
advice drew a sharp critique from the US embassy in Dili, which drew on United Nations and East Timorese human
rights investigations to argue that Mr Sjamsoeddin repeatedly had command responsibility for Indonesian troops
that committed atrocities.
The US embassy in Dili concluded that "Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin held senior positions of command responsibility
in both 1991 and 1999, moments when atrocities undeniably occurred, and strongly indicate his personal culpability''.
