On 30 March 2006, Tony Blair met Indonesia's President Yudhoyono.
President Susilo BangbangYudhoyono is a former general with U.S. training.
The UK and Indonesia are to build defense ties
British officials said this step would allow moves such as joint exercises.
Human rights abuses continue in Indonesia.
According to the Masters of Terror database:
(quoted at http://www.etan.org/et2004/april/08-14/06yudhoy.htm )
Yudhoyono was the military's Chief of Socio-Political Staff Chief of Territorial Affairs with East Timor responsibilities in 1999.
Yudhoyono shared command responsibility for the criminal conduct of the army's forces in East Timor in 1999.
After the withdrawal from East Timor he defended the military against allegations that it had committed crimes against humanity.
He took part in Operation Seroja, the invasion of East Timor, and had several tours of duty there since, including commanding the Dili-based battalion 744 some time in the 1970s.
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Blair can learn from Soeharto's belated departure, according to Kornelius Purba, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, 30 March 2006.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060329.B01&irec=0
It is unlikely that any world leader, especially those still in power, would want to be compared with Soeharto, because the retired five-star general who ruled Indonesia for 32 years is usually associated with corruption on a massive scale, gross human rights abuses and cold-blooded leadership. Any comparison with Soeharto would be humiliating for most world leaders, who no doubt do not like to think of themselves in those terms.
So when British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives here Wednesday for a two-day visit, he is unlikely to imagine he has anything to learn from Soeharto.
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