By now, things weren’t looking good—not just in Jakarta, but also in Washington DC.
On 16 March 1998, an American reporter in Jakarta held a press conference to publicise allegations about previously undisclosed US-Indonesia joint training programmes, which coincided with the release of a cache of Pentagon documents by Congressional allies of the East Timor Action Network (ETAN).
Both the reporter and the documents alleged that the Pentagon had sold military training to Indonesia behind Congress’ back, and not just in 1996. They said that the US army had been training Indonesian soldiers since 1992 via something called the Joint Combined Exchange Training (J-CET) programme—an attempt to circumvent the ban on IMET.
“Indonesian troops were trained in air assault, urban warfare, and psychological operations 36 times between 1992 and 1997 without congressional knowledge or approval”
“Indonesian troops were trained in air assault, urban warfare, and psychological operations thirty-six times between 1992 and 1997 without congressional knowledge or approval,” said World Policy’s special report.
It was also alleged that many of the J-CET training exercises had involved Kopassus, Indonesia’s elite counter-insurgency unit that also operated in East Timor and which was “accused of carrying out torture, disappearance and extra-judicial killings”.
This training, while not illegal, “clearly violated Congressional intent”, wrote Kurt Biddle, Washington coordinator for the Indonesia Human Rights Network, in 2007.
On 28 March 1998, a cable, signed off by Albright, was sent from Washington DC to the US embassy in Jakarta, noting tensions between Congress and the wider administration:
“We are getting vibes from the Hill, indicating that Congress is greatly displeased with the administration’s response to the J-CET training issue. We may see fallout in the form of a congressional restriction on all joint training/exercises with the Indonesian military.”
By April, demonstrations were taking place across Indonesian university campuses. Students were losing patience with the lack of financial stability; to make matters worse, people were still going missing, only to turn up months later claiming that they’d been kidnapped and tortured by the Indonesian military—who, it was now apparent, had received undisclosed training from the Americans.
Not only had the US administration been selling military training to Indonesia—which, while legal, had been done without informing Congress—but it had also agreed to a loan of USD3 billion to assuage Indonesia’s financial woes, and Clinton had released statement after statement in support of Suharto. It was now clear that they’d continued to do this even in the face of all the human rights violations laid at the Suharto administration’s door.
On 6 April 1998 Roth requested a meeting at the US State Department with the Indonesian Ambassador to the United States, Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti. Roth said he hoped that Indonesia would reach another agreement with the IMF for more bailout money before 15 April 1998, but added that the Clinton administration and Congress had concerns about potential plans by the Indonesian government to stop on-campus demonstrations, the detentions of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, and the continued disappearances of activists.
Despite this, Roth also said that, “The USC [US Congress] appreciates the military’s restraint to date in dealing with protests, the allowance of on-campus demonstrations so far, and the decrease in anti-Sino Indonesian violence,” all of which he called “positive developments”.
Even though Suharto had willfully ignored most of the IMF’s stipulations over the previous months, the IMF, supported by the United States, signed a third agreement with Indonesia in April 1998 and poured another tranche of money into the country, on the understanding that Suharto would work on restructuring the banking system and implement bankruptcy laws.
Rumblings in Washington
As Indonesia continued to struggle with the social and economic fall-out, the issue of kidnappings and disappearances was becoming a real headache for the United States.
Of all the documents in the newly declassified cache, one of the most explosive was sent by Roy on 7 May 1998—it had been classified for 20 years. In a cable, sent with a priority notice to Washington DC, Roy detailed how the US embassy in Indonesia solicited sources, including student activists, to inform on where those kidnapped were being held and who was responsible.
The document doesn’t explain what brought on the sudden desire for this information; the problem had existed since 1996, and was hardly a new mystery. It seems possible that the embassy was under newly applied pressure from Washington DC to find out if there was a provable link between Kopassus—the elite force within the Indonesian army that carried out special operations for the government—and human rights abuses, and if they were using skills learned through J-CET to kidnap and torture pro-reform individuals.
The names of the sources that the embassy solicited are redacted, but the report is clear: “A leader of a mass student organisation told Poloff [Political Officer] that he was informed by a Kopassus source that the disappearances were carried out by ‘Group Four’ of Kopassus…”
The cable then goes on to list one of the potential locations where the victims were taken, described as “[t]he old ‘Kopassus team 81 anti-terrorist unit’ facility located off the old road to Bogor [a city south of Jakarta].”
The next day, 8 May 1998, the Pentagon sent a memo that stuck stubbornly to its narrative:
“Continued contact with the Indonesian military can serve US national security interests and contribute to our efforts to urge ABRl [The Indonesian Armed Forces] and other Indonesian authorities to exercise restraint”.
The memo did, however, try to put some space between the United States and the Indonesian actions:
“However, in the current situation in Indonesia, careful policy-level review of individual activities is necessary. Accordingly, effective immediately, and until further notice, all US military activities in Indonesia will require prior approval by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy”.
The J-CET activities were put on ice.
The fall of Suharto
Regardless of this decision by the Pentagon, Suharto still had the IMF’s money and continued to ignore the stipulations in the bailout package. As part of a new set of reforms, the IMF gave Suharto until October 1998 to gradually decrease fuel subsidies; in May 1998, he slashed them in one fell swoop.
It turned out to be a fatal mistake. Violent riots erupted and Indonesian security forces from the army and the police started shooting protesters, including four students at Trisakti University in Jakarta on 12 May 1998.
Roth had also spoken too soon about the “decrease in anti-Sino Indonesian violence”. In May 1998, student protests against the government that began in Medan became a flashpoint for anti-Chinese violence that spread across the country.
The wheels had come off the US-Indonesia relationship: by this point, the J-CET programme had been suspended and an upcoming US-Indonesian joint military exercise had been cancelled. Congress was in uproar, and had forced the Department of Defense Assistant Secretary, Franklin D. Kramer, to testify in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Indonesia was consumed by rioting against the Suharto government; and the security forces were rapidly losing control, shooting demonstrators and displaying none of the “restraint” that Roth had previously praised, and that the Pentagon had insisted would come out of continued engagement.
Just six months after he confidently welcomed the IMF to “come take a look” at Indonesia, Suharto called a press conference on 21 May 1998 to announce his resignation.
His 32 year rule of Indonesia was over. Clinton would have to find a new friend.