LT. GEN JOHNY LUMINTANG

Virtual Truth Commission

In 1989 Lumintang was brought to the United States for an International Defense Management course under the Pentagon's IMET (International Military Education and Training) program (Lumintang was IMET student #23294). In following years Lumintang assumed command of two military campaigns -- occupied East Timor and West Papua [Irian Jaya] -- based on the systematic torture, killing, and abduction of civilians. Alain Nairn, "General Lumintang Trained by the U. S., March 29, 2000.

1996. Under Lumintang's command in West Papua (1996), Kopassus massacred civilians after descending from a helicopter illegally painted with international Red Cross markings. Alain Nairn, "General Lumintang Trained by the U. S., March 29, 2000.

May, 1998. Lumintang shared command of "security" in Jakarta during anti-Chinese riots that -- according to diplomats and human rights groups -- the army itself helped to organize. Alain Nairn, "General Lumintang Trained by the U. S., March 29, 2000.

1998. US suspends JCET(Joint Combined Exchange and Training) training with Indonesia which had provided Kopassus extensive training in tactics including demolitions, surveillance, "advanced sniper technique," air, sea, and ground assault and "psychological operations." Training was suspended in 1998 after a public and Congressional outcry. Alain Nairn, "General Lumintang Trained by the U. S., March 29, 2000.

May, 1999. As Vice Chief of Staff for the Army -- and also as a former on-the-ground East Timor commander -- Lumintang played a leading role in the shaping of Timor militia policy. On the day that the UN agreement for the Timor referendum was finalized (May 5, 1999), Lumintang sent a telegraphed order to commanders for the Timor zone directing them to prepare a "security plan" including "repressive/coercive measures," as well as a military-planned "exodus" if the Timorese voted for independence. As an army personnel chief he also helped send his former aide -- Gen. Kiki Syhanakrie -- to Timor to assume command of the final stage of the scorched earth operation. Alain Nairn, "General Lumintang Trained by the U. S., March 29, 2000.

On June 30, 1999 Lumintang personally authorized and signed a secret Kopassus covert action manual ("Buku Petunjuk Pembinaan Sandhi Yudha") that calls for preparing Kopassus forces in the "tactic and technique" of "terror," "kidnapping," "sabotage," "undercover," "infiltration," "wiretapping," and similar measures. The handbook is, according to senior Indonesian armed forces officials, still in use in Indonesia and is at this moment (April, 2000) being applied in the Kopassus terror campaigns in West Papua and Aceh, and in undercover provocateur operations in Ambon and Kalimantan.Alain Nairn, "General Lumintang Trained by the U. S., March 29, 2000.

August-September, 1999. Lumintang's terror handbook used in occupied East Timor during the 1999 armed forces/militia campaign of arson, murder, rape, abduction, and assassination ( A copy of the book was found in an abandoned army base by Yayasan Hak, an East Timorese human rights and legal aid group). Alain Nairn, "General Lumintang Trained by the U. S., March 29, 2000.

April, 2000. The Pentagon is now (April 2000) pushing to renew it on the grounds that under leaders like Lumintang, the armed forces are reforming themselves and deserve new US weapons and know-how.Lumintang has long been a close protege of US military intelligence, and has been promoted by the Pentagon and State Department as a leading Indonesian "moderate." Alain Nairn, "General Lumintang Trained by the U. S., March 29, 2000.

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Updated April 7, 2000