RESUMING ENGAGEMENT WITH KOPASSUS, THE ARMY'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 002934 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR P, T, EAP, EAP/MTS, PM, PM/RSAT SECDEF FOR OSD J.TOOLAN, USDP/ISA/AP P.IPSEN JOINT STAFF FOR P.CLEMMONS NSC FOR WILDER AND PHU E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/18/2017 TAGS: PREL MARR MOPS ID SUBJECT: RESUMING ENGAGEMENT WITH KOPASSUS, THE ARMY'S SPECIAL FORCES UNIT REF: A. JAKARTA 1075 ¶B. JAKARTA 1246 ¶C. SECSTATE 96175 ¶D. SECSTATE 52302 ¶E. SECDEF 191854Z APR 07 JAKARTA 00002934 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Ambassador Cameron R. Hume, reasons 1.4 (b,d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The time is right to resume gradual engagement with KOPASSUS, the Indonesian Army's elite Special Forces unit. The basis for engagement remains the Secretary's waiver of legislative restrictions on military SIPDIS cooperation with the GOI issued in November 2005, which opened the way to proceed toward military-to-military normalization. The re-establishment of bilateral activities with KOPASSUS is part of this normalization policy. We outline below the reasons to resume engagement at this time and list the steps we plan to take in that direction. END SUMMARY. MOVING FORWARD ¶2. (C) The special military forces play an essential role in Indonesia's ability to protect U.S. official, civilian and commercial interests here. Our interests depend on these forces and their police counterparts for protection in the event of a terrorist attack, hostage-taking, aircraft hijacking, violent demonstration or other similar threats to public safety. Although primary responsibility for combating terrorism now rests with the police, KOPASSUS' Special Detachment 81 remains key to counter-terrorism operations. It is essential that, in building a strong counter-terrorism partnership with Indonesia, we achieve a level of trust, understanding and cooperation with all elements of the host-country security force structure, especially the high-end forces such as KOPASSUS. Shunning them ties the Ambassador's hands in the event of a major hostage taking or other crisis. Under current restrictions, the group most likely to be called to rescue Americans in a crisis is exactly the group that we have engaged the least. ¶3. (C) Indonesian civilian and military authorities regard U.S. re-engagement with KOPASSUS as a logical and necessary part of our overall bilateral cooperation. Defense Minister Sudarsono underscored this concern in his meetings with Secretary Rice and Defense DepSec England during Sudarsono's SIPDIS visit to Washington in April (refs d, e). TNI commander (Panglima) Air Marshal Djoko Suyanto has made similar appeals to the Ambassador, emphasizing that younger officers not be penalized for past transgressions of the TNI. We note that Australia continued to work with KOPASSUS as part of its overall re-engagement with the Indonesian military after the advent of democracy in 1998. ICRC Executive Director Georges Paclisanu has expressed to us several times that U.S. engagement with KOPASSUS would reinforce ICRC's human-rights training for the force. ¶4. (C) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been training senior and mid-level KOPASSUS soldiers in human rights in a train-the-trainer format. These trainees then train KOPASSUS units and maintain an ongoing training program. (Specifically, the ICRC training consists International Humanitarian Law as contained in the Geneva Convention.) The ICRC has also published a booklet with these principles for each KOPASSUS soldier (see also ref a). At the same time, this Mission continues to press the TNI and the government of Indonesia for accountability of past excesses. Mission also conducts full human-rights vetting for all TNI personnel receiving U.S. assistance. NEXT STEPS ¶5. (C) In resuming the engagement suspended temporarily because of the Tommy Suharto flap (refs b, c),Mission plans to proceed with the following series of events over the next two years to assess KOPASSUS capabilities and human-rights commitment and to lay the basis for broader cooperation. Although the specific focus of each event will vary, the JAKARTA 00002934 002.2 OF 002 series will progress from initial non-lethal to lethal activities, culminating in counter-terrorist exercises with KOPASSUS' special counter-terrorism force, Detachment 81. Generally, although none of the events is a prerequisite for another, the execution of events builds in part upon successful completion of preceding events. ¶6. (C) The notional engagement plan as it currently stands: -- APR-MAY 2008: Balance Iron 08-2: non-lethal JCET (Joint Combined Exchange Training) -- JUL-AUG 2008: Balance Iron 08-4: most likely another non-lethal JCET -- OCT-DEC 2008: Balance Iron 09-1: standard JCET -- JAN-Feb 2009: Balance Iron 09-2: counterinsurgency operations (COIN) exercise -- FEB-MAR 2009: Vector Balance Iron 09-1: Counter-terrorism operations exercise. ¶7. (C) The initial event next spring will be conducted with 20-24 KOPASSUS soldiers. The proposed training tasks include: -- fundamentals of human rights -- the military decision-making process -- intelligence preparation of the battlefield -- handling and treatment of personnel -- basic combat life-saving techniques -- introduction to advanced combat life-saving techniques -- fundamentals of marksmanship. A DELIBERATE, TARGETED PROGRAM ¶8. (C) This series of exercises represents a deliberate, targeted program designed to broaden KOPASSUS' exposure to U.S. skills and capabilities, starting with respect for human rights. Its moderate pace offers sufficient time to assess progress at each step yet maintains the necessary momentum to build cooperation constructively toward eventual full engagement. Other events are in planning which would follow upon those outlined above, should this process run successfully. Those events would round out the re-engagement by covering additional skills and capabilities of special forces. In the end, our objective is to put our military cooperation with KOPASSUS on par with that of other TNI units. We would then be in a stronger position to count on the support of this important force in promoting U.S. objectives and protecting U.S. personnel in Indonesia. HUME