TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Ministers want Namru-2 shut down
ON THE SCENT: State Minister of Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman (left) discusses the U
Change Size
ON THE SCENT: State Minister of Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman (left) discusses the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit Two, NAMRU-2, during a hearing with the House of Representatives’ Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs. (JP/P. J. Leo)
Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari couldn't have been louder when she shouted "No" to the extension of the agreement with the United States Naval Medical Research Unit 2 (Namru-2) at a hearing with lawmakers here on Wednesday.
However, she was puzzled when asked how the President really felt about it. "I've told the President the lab's useless, the cooperation degrades our sovereignty and it should be shut down. He told me to shut it if I think it's no use. But I can't say about his conversations with other people."
The House of Representatives' Commission I overseeing defense, information and foreign affairs heard Wednesday from related ministries on Namru-2's operations in Indonesia.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda had said Monday that Indonesia and the United States, which says the lab does not do intelligence work and is helpful to Indonesia's health sector, would start talks on its status next month, amid widespread calls for its closure.
Siti wasn't out on a limb in calling for closure.
Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said at the hearing that his ministry recommended the lab should be shut due to lack of transparency and because its presence was not in the national interest.
Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Djoko Santoso said the lab, which was started in 1970, had not handed in any reports on its activities to the TNI since 1996.
"If this agreement is to continue, the military wants to see conditions imposed. For instance, traveling researchers must go through clearance, and they need to register and operate with lines of accountability that we can monitor," Djoko said.
Namru-2 is a facility under the United States navy, but its counterpart is the Health Ministry.
The military says the U.S. has turned Namru-2 from a local unit into a regional command facility that handles research work in various countries, thus making monitoring difficult.
While State Minister for Research and Technology Koesmayanto Kadiman didn't specify opposition to the lab, he did list Indonesian labs that were internationally recognized and even superior to Namru-2 in some respects.
Calls for Namru-2 to close have been made since the 1990s.
There was a call to end the establishing agreement in a letter from then foreign minister Alwi Shihab in January 2000. But two months later, then president Abdurrahman Wahid agreed to resume talks for a new agreement, which has yet to materialize.
Although the establishment agreement expired in 2005, the present position apparently is that Namru-2 can continue to operate until a new agreement is reached on its status.
These collective reservations about Namru-2 left a number of House members confused, wondering if the President was being indecisive about the continuing operation of Namru-2.
"I'm trying to see the logic here. If the Health Ministry, the counterpart and the end-user, strongly believes Namru-2 is useless to Indonesia, then why is the government working on renewing the agreement?" lawmaker Yusron Ihza Mahendra said.
Lawmaker Jeffrey Massie said, "Where's the President on this issue? Why hasn't he actually made up his mind if the Health Ministry is here today, insisting that Namru-2 must be shut?"
