| Subject: BG: VT
College Cuts Ties with Indonesian Military
Also: Norwich Severs Ties With Indonesia
by Terry Allen
The Boston Globe December 21, 1999,
Tuesday
VT. COLLEGE CUTS TIES WITH INDONESIA
MILITARY By Ellen Barry, Globe Staff
In an about-face, the president of
Norwich University, a private military college in Vermont, announced
yesterday that the college would "sever all formal ties with the
Indonesian government."
The decision by Richard Schneider
dismantles a two-year-old program for Indonesian students that came under
fire this fall, against the backdrop of a brutal Jakarta-backed crackdown
on civilians in East Timor. The students' tuition was paid by the
Indonesian government through its military attache in Washington, D.C. In
October, when the Globe first reported the connection, Schneider
maintained that excluding the Indonesian students would amount to unfair
discrimination. But Schneider changed his mind last weekend, decreeing
that the school would no longer accept payments from the Indonesian
military.
The 11 undergraduates who are funded by
the Indonesian government will remain on campus, but their tuition will be
paid through "alternative sources of funding," Schneider said.
Norwich will also establish scholarships for two students from East Timor,
"to demonstrate our commitment to helping the world's newest nation
as it sets about the onerous task of nation-building."
Word spread quickly yesterday among the
faculty members who have been trying to draw the administration's
attention to human rights abuses in East Timor.
"I feel great. I feel stunned,"
said Mitch Hall, who is director of the school's International Student
Office and has been one of the most vocal opponents of the cooperative
program. "I think it's a tremendous leap forward, and I think it's
right."
Over the coming months, a university
commission will lay new ground rules for international students - with a
focus on when and how a government's human rights record should affect a
foreign student's application.
Until spring, when the panel delivers a
report on international admissions, the school will not accept any more
students from the Indonesian military. However, university spokesman Tom
Greene said there was "unanimous support" on campus for the
continued attendance of the undergraduates currently enrolled.
"If they applied again, we'd accept
them again," he said. "They've been great students."
Mark Byrnes, one of the professors who
argued for the changes, said he and his colleagues never objected to
Indonesian students.
"Our criticism was never that there
are Indonesian students here," said Byrnes, who teaches in Norwich's
history department. "We objected to the fact that there seemed to be
this institutional relationship."
The Norwich -Indonesia program was set up
in 1997 after an exchange of visits between Norwich officials and two
Indonesian generals. The generals were members of Kopassus, the Indonesian
Army's elite special forces.
After the East Timorese independence vote
Aug. 30 triggered a brutal military crackdown in the capital, Dili,
President Clinton issued a ban on US support for the Indonesian military.
Because the students were civilians, and because Norwich is a private
institution, the university was not bound by that ban, Greene said.
Last weekend, Schneider decided to
discontinue the program after months of dismay over the growing split
between the Indonesian military and the civilian government, Greene said.
Schneider had "wanted to see how the Indonesian military would
react" after the referendum, and became discouraged by what he saw,
Greene said.
END ------ [Note: A version of this will
appear in In These Times shortly.}
Norwich Severs Ties With Indonesia I
Quit. You're Fired Dec. 21, 1999
By Terry J. Allen
In a stunning turn around, Norwich
University announced Monday that it "is severing all formal ties with
the Indonesian military ...[and] will no longer accept payments" for
students to attend the country's's only private military college.
Norwich had previously defended its
relationship with the Indonesian military by saying the training would
spread American values and thereby help the Indonesian army break its
decades-long pattern of human rights abuses. Schneider had further
insisted that turning away the Indonesians would amount to
"discrimination" against individuals.
By severing ties, said faculty member
Mark Byrnes, Norwich "has finally admitted that there was an
institutional relationship between the Indonesian army and the University.
That was always our problem with the program and now President Richard
Schneider has addressed it." he said. "I feel as if Christmas
has come five days early."
Although the Norwich announcement marks a
dramatic change, it is in part symbolic. The program had already become a
causualty of power and economic shifts in Indonesia and no new students
have applied in the last few years.
Furthermore, according to Gen. Dadi
Susento, defense attache at the Indonesian embassy in Washington, the
military had already cut off funds to the Norwich students in September.
The move followed President Clinton's order that the U.S. suspend all
cooperation with the Indonesian military. "By that decision, we were
not able to send any more [money to the Norwich students]."
Susento said he communicated that
decision in September to the head of the university's military graduate
program, Professor Fariborz Mokhtari , who once served in the army of the
Shah of Iran. Tom Greene, Norwich spokesperson, denied that President
Schneider was aware that the Indonesians had already cut of funding. On
Tuesday, Greene also said that the University had yet to inform the
Indonesian Embassy of the severing of relations. According to Susento,
however, Mokhtari informed the embassy on Monday. "I was surprised
and disappointed," said the attache, "because Indonesia needs
officers who understand the value of democracy and human rights."
Schneider explained that he decided to
cut ties after realizing that the Indonesian military was not really
interested in reform. "This army has not demonstrated a commitment to
... respect for civilian authority by the military," he wrote.
Faculty member Mitch Hall commended the
change of policy, but noted that "The weight of evidence has been
there all along. It was pressure from those who spoke out that changed the
balance and showed the university that it was in its self-interest to do
the right thing."
In Oct. the Boston Globe reported that at
least four Indonesian Norwich graduates had served in East Timor around
the time of the independence referendum when the army rampaged through the
small country. An additional 11 Indonesian undergraduates, currently
enrolled at Norwich, listed their address as headquarters of Kopassus--the
elite special forces notorious for brutality.
The Norwich Indonesia program was set up
in 1997 by Schneider after a trip to Indonesia where he and Mokhtari met
with high military officials, some of whom had close ties to Kopassus. Two
of the generals, A.M. Hendropriyono and Anwar Zacky--both of whom have
been implicated in gross human rights abuses--visited Norwich.
In its press release, Norwich announced
that it will seek alternative funding for the current crop of Indonesian
students and will "also offer Cadet scholarships for two students
from East Timor. ... [to] demonstrate our commitment to helping the
world's newest nation as it sets about the onerous [sic] task of nation
building."
Schneider also announced the
establishment of two committees to look into setting guidelines for future
international admissions. Ciritcs look to the composition of that panel as
a measure of the university's commitment. Faculty member Michael Sherman
encouraged Norwich to include representatives from Amnesty International
or Human Rights Watch. "They have experience of how research issues
of human rights and can give guidance on how to establish criteria, he
said. "Otherwise, there is too much room for error."
John Miller of the East Timor Action
Network praised the University's turnaround, but noted that "the
Indonesian military's well-documented record of abuses in East Timor and
Indonesia has long been available," he said. "Norwich can help
East Timor by pressing its friends in the Indonesian military to end
collusion between the military and its militias and to disarm and disband
all militia groups now preventing East Timorese from returning home."
Terry J. Allen tallen@igc.org
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