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Militia U. | page 1, 2
One State Department employee with ties to Indonesia said he knew nothing about Norwich University's links to Kopassus. He asked to remain anonymous, saying he wanted to minimize the State Department's involvement in the matter. Norwich's Greene insists that a private school ought to have the freedom to determine its own admissions policy. "It's a question of whether colleges can make decisions for themselves," he said. "[The 11 students are] guilty by association. As far as I can tell, the students here are very supportive of the Indonesians." Norwich president Richard Schneider, speaking on WBUR, Boston's public radio station, said the school was teaching the students combat training, military ethics and human-rights issues, and hoped this would stop them from taking part in any future violence in East Timor. Yet some critics consider the notion that the U.S. military can teach foreign students to become ethical soldiers preposterous. "There's a wide belief that if you could expose these cadets to U.S. freedom and education, you're going to transform them into a respectable army," said Human Rights Watch's Sidney Jones. "We're just not seeing this happen." Jones maintains that U.S. military schools regularly produce graduates who go on to commit documented human-rights abuses. On the other hand, none of the Norwich graduates who served in East Timor during the Aug. 30 election for independence -- there were at least four -- has been linked to the atrocities. The history of Norwich's relationship with Indonesia is short. In 1997 former Kopassus officers Gen. Zacky Makarim and Gen. A.M. Hendropriyono met with university officials at the Vermont campus. President Schneider has told the Boston Globe that he did not know the generals' backgrounds at the time of the meeting. Makarim is the man accused of heading 13 of the militias responsible for massacres in East Timor. "Hendro" has been nicknamed "The Butcher of Lampung" according to Human Rights Watch. The Norwich connection with Indonesian high officials goes beyond that 1997 meeting on campus, however. "The Defense Intelligence Agency facilitated the setting up of the Norwich training program with Indonesia," Nairn said. "Colonel John Haseman [U.S. attaché in Jakarta until 1994] now serves as advisor to the Kopassus-based students studying at Norwich." Meanwhile, it appears that President Clinton has no beef with the Indonesian students. If the Senate bill passes, its sponsors would have to add a clause that includes ROTC as military-to-military cooperation. As it stands, the Pentagon's curious ties to Indonesia's military remain. Greene said the college has no intention of fighting Congress or offending East Timor. "Our position is that we'll do whatever the federal government tells us to do. If they tell us to send them home, we'll do it. Otherwise, they've been model students."
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