T

he US has prevented a number of Indonesia’s former generals from entering America despite having lifted travel bans on others since the revocation of the US arms embargo in 2005.

“Our military to military cooperation has improved, although the bans are still an issue that we have to address with [Washington]. I can say that the number [of banned generals] has gone down,” Indonesia’s charge d’Affaires for the US Salman Al Farisi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The statement is the first public acknowledgement made by an Indonesian official, although many diplomats and state officials have quietly expressed their anger over the US treatment.

Salman declined to mention the number of banned generals or how many have been restored, saying that “Jakarta has been negotiating the issue with the US in many forums and they have responded well to that”.

The US imposed an arms embargo in the 1990s over Indonesia’s poor human rights records in Papua, Aceh and East Timor.

The embargo was waived in 2005 but a number of generals implicated with rights violations are still believed to be banned from entering the US.

Last year’s visa rejection against then secretary-general of the Defense Ministry Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and Maj. Gen. Pramono Edi Wibowo, then commander of the Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus), sparked protest from lawmakers and officials.

Both of them failed to obtain a visa to enter the United States on a G-20 trip with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Sjafrie, now deputy defense minister, has been accused to have been involved in human rights abuses during the 1998 Jakarta riots while elements of Kopassus were involved in the kidnapping of activists during New Order era.

Paul T. Belmont, press attache for the US embassy, however, denied Monday the ban imposed on certain generals, saying visa applicants are judged by universal standards, and it was done on a case by case basis.

Vice-presidental candidates in the 2009 elections Gen. (ret.) Wiranto and Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto are also believed to be banned from entering the United States over their alleged rights abuses in the past.

When asked whether the negotiation on the comprehensive partnership with the US also included the revocation of bans on the generals, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said: “Let’s wait and see once [the agreement draft] has been finalized and launched.”