Leaked US State Department cables reveal that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono privately told the US that continuing the ban - introduced in 1999 because of Kopassus's appalling human rights record, including killings in East Timor and West Papua - was the ''litmus test of the bilateral relationship'' between the US and Indonesia.
Six months later, the US agreed to resume ties with Kopassus, despite fierce criticism from some human rights groups and American politicians about Jakarta's failure to hold officers to account for their role in atrocities.
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The cables, released by WikiLeaks exclusively to The Age, detail US concerns about Indonesia's failure to prosecute the military personnel responsible for murder and torture during the conflicts in East Timor and Aceh.
But they also reveal that US diplomats in Jakarta believed that Mr Yudhoyono's demands should be met to ensure that Indonesia's military and security services would protect American interests in the region, including co-operation in the war on terror. It was also argued that closer military ties would encourage further reform of Indonesia's military.
The Indonesian leader's call to lift the Kopassus training ban is described in a January cable from the US embassy in Jakarta.
''President Yudhoyono (SBY) and other senior Indonesian officials have made it clear to us that SBY views the issue of Army Special Forces (KOPASSUS) training as a litmus test of the bilateral relationship and that he believes the … visit of President Obama will not be successful unless this issue is resolved in advance of the visit,'' the cable says.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in July that the US needed to renew links with Kopassus ''as a result of Indonesian military reforms over the past decade, the ongoing professionalisation of the TNI, and recent actions taken by the Ministry of Defence to address human rights issues''.
An Australian expert on the Indonesian military, Australian Defence Force Academy associate professor Clinton Fernandes, said yesterday the cables appeared to show that members of Congress such as Senator Patrick Leahy - author of the 1999 ban on training with Kopassus - ''have not been told the real reason for Obama's decision, which was to provide photo opportunities for the President''.
''The decision to renew links shows contempt not only to the victims of gross human rights violations but to members of the US Congress,'' Professor Fernandes said.
US diplomatic cables from the past four years reveal that Jakarta's intense lobbying to lift the Kopassus ban was largely supported by the US embassy in Jakarta, which cited the Australian military's ties with Kopassus as a reason to lift the ban.
An April 2007 cable says that ''our Australian counterparts often encourage us to resume training for KOPASSUS''.
However, numerous cables also detail serious US concerns about resuming ties.
In October 2007, the embassy told Washington that ''Indonesia has not prosecuted past human rights violations in any consistent manner. While we need to keep Indonesia mindful of the consequences of inaction on TNI [Indonesian military] accountability, Indonesia is unlikely to abandon its approach. We need therefore to encourage the Indonesian government to take alternative steps to demonstrate accountability.''
Around the same time, another cable from the embassy noted that several high-ranking Indonesia officers had been promoted, despite questions about their involvement in past atrocities.
''In two cases (Muis and Zamroni), officers linked to human rights violations have been promoted to key positions,'' the cable said. ''Indonesian Defense Department contacts have told us the promotions for these two were delayed beyond the usual date because of their past activities. One case (Heryadi) may herald closer ties with China.''
Another 2007 cable details US concern about the appearance at a Kopassus anniversary celebration of Tommy Suharto, the notorious son of the former president who served several years in prison for arranging the killing of a judge who convicted him of fraud.
In May 2008, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, was briefed by US diplomats that ''the key impediment to expanded engagement remains the failure of the GOI [Indonesia] to press for accountability for past human rights abuses by security forces.
''The accountability issue stopped our planned engagement with the elite Army Special Forces (KOPASSUS) dead in its tracks and can be felt in other mil-mil [military-to-military] activities.''
The cable welcomes the Indonesian military's reforms but noted they were not ''the same as putting generals behind bars for past human rights abuses''.
In late 2009, about six months before the US lifted its Kopassus ban, US Under-Secretary for Defence Bill Burns told senior Indonesian officials that ''engagement with KOPASSUS continued to be a difficult and complex issue, particularly as there remained many in Washington, including in Congress, with serious concerns about accountability for past KOPASSUS actions''.
But the US cables also reveal the Jakarta embassy's efforts to water down the background screening that Indonesian military officers must undergo if they undertake training in the US.
The US embassy is also revealed in another cable as heavily playing down a 2009 report by Human Rights Watch that alleges Kopassus soldiers had committed recent human rights abuses in Papua.
The embassy called the report unbalanced and unconfirmed. It said that the abuses detailed did not appear to ''meet the standard of gross violation of human rights''.
''In these incidents, KOPASSUS personnel allegedly beat and kicked nine Papuans inside a KOPASSUS compound … Several cases involved Papuans who were drunk or enga
ged in disruptive behaviour near the KOPASSUS barracks.'' (Philip Dorling and Nick McKenzie )
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