The US has officially lifted its ban on the participation of the Indonesian Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus) in any joint Indonesia-US military activities.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who made a short visit to Indonesia, said after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday that the US government had done so following improvements in human rights and defense reforms in Indonesia, a view echoed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“I was pleased to be able to tell the President that as a result of Indonesian Military (TNI) reform over the past decade and recent actions taken by the ministry of defense to address human rights issues, the US will begin measured and gradual programs of security cooperation activities with the Indonesian Army Special Forces,” Gates said at a news conference.

“This initial step will take place within the limit of US law and does not signal any lessening of the importance we place on human rights and accountability,” he added.

Yudhoyono, meanwhile, guaranteed that there would be no more rights abuses by the TNI. “I will continue TNI reforms and ensure that what happened 10 or 20 years ago will not happen again,” the President was quoted as saying by Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

At a later news gathering, Gates said what Indonesia had done in improving human rights was sufficient for the US government to make such a decision.

“There are dramatically declining numbers of incidents of violations of human rights. And I think this is a tribute to the people and government of Indonesia, which is not something the US is dictating,” he said at the Four Seasons Hotel in Jakarta.

The ban on Kopassus was part of a US military embargo, in addition to a ban on military equipment sales to Indonesia.

The embargo was imposed more than a decade ago in response to repeated human rights abuses committed by Kopassus in West Papua and Timor Leste (then East Timor).

After the ban is lifted, military cooperation will grow further between the two countries, particularly in the TNI’s modernization programs, Gates said.

“We are very interested in working with the TNI about force modernization. We probably have one of the most active programs of any country of cooperation with the TNI,” he said.

“We’re also willing to look at other areas where we can cooperate with Indonesia as well.”

When a journalist compared the US, which applied tight restrictions concerning human rights in their arms sales, to China, which does otherwise, Gates said: “I think most people in the world care about human rights. Some of the governments may not.”

Apart from Kopassus, Gates also touched on issues such as the South China Sea, maritime security cooperation, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and peacekeeping operations.

With regard to maritime security cooperation, Gates said he expected both countries to expand their engagement.

“We have funded Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in terms of radars, technical intelligence and so on. It’s a form of intelligence and intelligence sharing,” he said.

“We have a strong foundation in that area and I would expect it to expand.”

He said the radar equipment helped the three countries fight transnational crimes and piracy in the region.

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