Posted on 08/01/2002 9:31:22 PM PDT by Conagher
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Hardline Islamic groups in Indonesia were gearing up Friday to protest against visiting Secretary of State Colin Powell, who will discuss fighting terrorism and patching up military ties with Jakarta's leaders.
Powell arrived in Jakarta overnight, armed with an offer of $16 million to help Indonesian police fight terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation, regarded as Southeast Asia's weakest link in the U.S.-led war on terror.
The country's small but vocal radical Islamic groups planned a rowdy welcome during Powell's fleeting visit, part of a swing through Asia where battling terrorism has been the focus.
"After Friday prayers, more than 200 of our members will aim for the foreign ministry and U.S. embassy. At the same time, around 20 other groups will hit the streets separately," said Suaib Didu, chairman of the radical Islamic Youth Movement.
"You must remember that it's the U.S. who created terrorism."
Friday Muslim prayers end around 1:00 p.m. (0600 GMT).
Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim but the majority are moderate. Threats by radicals of large-scale public action in the past have usually proven to be overblown.
Even so, police have begun to tighten security in front of the U.S. embassy in central Jakarta, partially cordoning off the road with barbed wire barricades and rope. They have said they would take tough action if protests got out of control.
President Bush is expected to sign the $16 million aid measure into law despite worries about the human rights record of Indonesia's army, whose invasion of East Timor in 1975 ignited a wave of violence and suffering in the territory that became formally independent earlier this year.
Human rights groups and some members of Congress fear the Bush administration may seek to expand the aid in its 2003 budget, before Indonesia shows enough progress on reforms.
"If we're going to defeat the terrorists, then we're going to have to attack them from the highest moral plane and human rights must be protected," Powell said in Brunei before he left for Jakarta, when asked if he feared some countries might use the war on terrorism as an excuse to continue human rights abuses.
Powell said he expected to discuss military-to-military cooperation and human rights issues in Jakarta. He will present ideas to Indonesia on how to fight terrorism and is due to meet leaders of groups from Indonesia's moderate Muslim mainstream.
Jakarta wants Washington to mend military ties scaled back in 1992 over suppression in East Timor, and then largely severed in 1999 after Indonesian military-backed militias rampaged when East Timorese voted to break from Indonesian rule.
Bush's administration has also expressed hope military ties could soon be renewed.
Bush has thanked Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri for her efforts in the anti-terror fight, while the U.S. ambassador to Jakarta has said Indonesia had been "very responsive" in its efforts. But some U.S. officials and Indonesia's neighbors have said Jakarta needed to do more.
Fears that militant strains of Islam may take hold in the region have fueled calls in Washington for more help for Indonesia.
Despite criticism of Jakarta, diplomats and security analysts say Indonesia has stepped up its anti-terror cooperation since the start of the year, despite fears of a Muslim backlash. Muslim-Christian violence has racked parts of Indonesia since early 1999, although since Megawati took over clashes have eased.
Jakarta says its fight against terrorism has been hurt by curbs on U.S. arms technology exports -- a message Megawati may repeat to Powell on his penultimate stop in an eight-nation tour that took him to an Asia-Pacific security conference in Brunei.
The $16 million was included in a $28.9 billion emergency package Congress passed a week ago for the Pentagon, homeland security and New York's recovery after the September 11 attacks that killed 3,000 people.
The money allows the United States to train Indonesia's police and includes $12 million for an anti-terrorism unit.
[Emphasis mine. -- Conagher]
I'm damn tired of this continual givaway of money to other countries in the world. Indonesia has enough money to pay for its own police force. Why should American taxpayers have to do it? And why $16 million? Who came up with that figure? Let them pay for their own damn police! Fight terrorism --bullshit! It's just going in some fat cat Muslim's pocket!
Besides, if you give someone money, how can they not love you?
< /sarcasm >
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