For these reasons, many citizens and members of the American Congress have opposed the United States’ role as a leading source of weapons and military training for the Jakarta regime.

According to the State Department’s 1996 human rights report, "Despite a surface adherence to democratic forms, the Indonesian political system remains strongly authoritarian. The Government is dominated by an elite comprising President Suharto, his close associates, and the military." While there was an overall decrease in human rights incidents, the State Department noted that security forces continued to employ "harsh measures" in East Timor and Irian Jaya in 1996. These included extrajudicial killings, detention, torture, and obstruction of non-governmental and Catholic Church investigations into human rights violations.

The primary objective of the 450,000-member armed forces (which includes 175,000 police) is to maintain "internal unity and stability." The military wields significant power throughout Indonesian politics and society. Efforts to change this reality or reform other aspects of the government triggered harsh reactions in 1996, which "further infringed on fundamental rights." A case in point was the forcible take-over last July of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party headquarters. This action, and the ensuing riots sparked by it, resulted in five dead, 149 injured, and 23 missing, according to the National Human Rights Commission.

Not surprisingly, since the main opposition party was barred from running, President Suharto’s party won an overwhelming majority in parliamentary elections in May. The month prior to the election was marked by many riots by the banned political opposition. The government crackdown that followed resulted in the death of about 300 people.

It is expected that the parliament will re-elect General Suharto to a seventh five-year term. In an uncharacteristically critical statement after the election, the State Department spokesman said, "The electoral system severely limits political competition; Indonesian citizens do not have the ability to change their government through democratic means."

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, illegally annexing it the following year. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have estimated that more than 100,000 Timorese out of a population of only

700,000 were killed in the first five years. Since 1980 another 100,000 are thought to have been killed or to have died of hunger and disease.

In November 1991, using U.S.-supplied M-16 assault rifles, the Indonesian army opened fire on peaceful Timorese demonstrators. The soldiers killed 50-150 demonstrators who were proceeding to a cemetery in Dili, the capitol of Timor, in a memorial for a man previously killed by the military.

The 1996 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, East Timor's Roman Catholic Bishop, and to Jose Ramos-Horta, who has long advocated a referendum by the Timorese public on the question of independence.

Not all protest against Indonesian rule is peaceful. In the wake of the May 1997 elections, separatist rebels bombed a police truck with grenades killing 17 officers during one of the worst outbreaks of violence in years in the disputed territory. At least 41 people were killed in rebel attacks.

Historically, the United States has been a leading supporter of the Indonesian military.

In 1992, because of the massacre in Dili in the preceding November, the Congress cut off further military training for Indonesia. Responding to Congressional and citizen pressure, in 1994 the U.S. State Department banned the sale to Indonesia of small arms, riot gear, and other "crowd control" technologies which could be used to commit human rights abuses. But U.S. policy still permits the sale of larger, more expensive weapons, such as F-16 fighter/bomber jets. The administration claims that F-16s are not likely to be used to commit human rights abuses, and during 1996-97 it advocated the sale of nine of the aircraft to Indonesia. On 6 June of this year, citing criticism from the U.S. Congress, Indonesia cancelled its order for the jets.