| Home | Bookmark | Tell | Active petitions in over 75 countries | World Times |
Don't Train Indonesia's Deadly Kopassus |
1439 Signatures |
Published by John M Miller on Jul 22, 2009
Category: Human Rights
Region: United States of America
Target: President of the United States
Web site: http://www.etan.org
Background (Preamble):
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has recently learned that the U.S. is considering training Indonesia's notorious Special Forces (Kopassus). More than any other unit in the Indonesian military, Kopassus stands accused of the most egregious human rights violations. Tell the Obama administration not to train Kopassus.
The history of Kopassus human rights violations, its criminality and its unaccountability before Indonesian courts extends back decades and includes human rights and other crimes in East Timor, Aceh, West Papua and elsewhere. The crimes of Kopassus are not only in the past. A recently published Human Rights Watch report details ongoing Kopassus human right violations in West Papua.
In 2008, the Bush administration proposed to restart U.S. training of Kopassus. the State Department legal counsel reportedly ruled that the ban on training of military units with a history of involvement in human rights violations, known as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole. This ruling should stand.
See the letter signed by more than 50 U.S. organizations opposing training for Kopassus
http://www.etan.org/news/2009/07kopassus.htm
The history of Kopassus human rights violations, its criminality and its unaccountability before Indonesian courts extends back decades and includes human rights and other crimes in East Timor, Aceh, West Papua and elsewhere. The crimes of Kopassus are not only in the past. A recently published Human Rights Watch report details ongoing Kopassus human right violations in West Papua.
In 2008, the Bush administration proposed to restart U.S. training of Kopassus. the State Department legal counsel reportedly ruled that the ban on training of military units with a history of involvement in human rights violations, known as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole. This ruling should stand.
See the letter signed by more than 50 U.S. organizations opposing training for Kopassus
http://www.etan.org/news/2009/07kopassus.htm
Petition:
We the undersigned urge the U.S. government to strictly prohibit any U.S. cooperation with or assistance to the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus).
This force, more than any other in the Indonesian military, stands accused by the Indonesian people of some of the most egregious human rights violations. U.S. law prohibits the training of military units with a history of involvement in human rights violations.
This provision has been long been interpreted as narrowly as possible. However, in 2008, the State Department ruled that the ban, known as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole. We believe that this ruling should apply and the U.S. must continue to refuse to train Kopassus.
This force, more than any other in the Indonesian military, stands accused by the Indonesian people of some of the most egregious human rights violations. U.S. law prohibits the training of military units with a history of involvement in human rights violations.
This provision has been long been interpreted as narrowly as possible. However, in 2008, the State Department ruled that the ban, known as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole. We believe that this ruling should apply and the U.S. must continue to refuse to train Kopassus.
The Don't Train Indonesia's Deadly Kopassus petition to President of the United States was written by John M Miller and is hosted free of charge at GoPetition. Contact author here.
Promote this petition with a popular social bookmarking service [?]:
To link to this petition, copy the following code to your site:
