Arms Trade
                'Free Trade' is very sexy these days. And what's the world's biggest trade? What are we trading so freely? Food? Computers?             After all, the USA is the world's biggest arms seller. It cut Indonesia a pretty good deal - since 1975, over $1 billion worth of military equipment.
            Other countries have been naughty too.  England sold 'em sophisticated fighter planes, and after its reunification Germany quietly sold Indonesia the entire East German Navy. Canada and The Netherlands have also supplied arms.
            In one memorable case a few years back a British jury cleared a number of defendants who damaged military aircraft bound for Indonesia as a protest against the treatment of the Timorese. Maybe they had the right idea.
            The European organization Campaign against Arms Trade has a special Indonesia focus. And for more general information try the Federation of American Scientists' Arms Sales Monitoring Project or the Conventional Arms Transfer Project.

Military Ties
        In addition to sharing all those weapons, the USA and Australia have done lots of joint training with the Indonesian military, sharing both technique and intelligence info.  Much of this cooperation is now being suspended...but for many years we were the best of pals. It's good to see peacekeepers over there. But whose peace are they keeping? Australia shared intelligence on East Timor activists, and helped train Indonesian special forces in guerrilla warfare techniques.
    You'd think after having been so tight with 'em, the West would have known something was up...