Re: NAMRU banned from Indonesia
Re: NAMRU banned from Indonesia
what do other ASEAN countries say ? Do they support
their member Indonesia in this "virus-theft" affaire ?
Looks as if they waited until Leavitt left. Maybe they had been hoping
for some new Leavitt-ideas to resolve the issue and then were
disappointed
There an interesting article in
www.aseanaffairs.com on this matter.
Well, with more and more facts come out these days, I believe the pressure on our govt to close this mysterious NAMRU-2 will be soo huge....
http://www.aseanaffairs.com/page/1055055
Naval Officers in White Smocks - Part 1: Diplomatic Passports for Anti-Viral Protection
By Mikhail Tsyganov exclusive for AA
Actually, this story was going to be titled "US Navy also fights bird flu in flooded Jakarta", but? a secretive office known as U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit 2, or NAMRU-2 established in Indonesia almost 40 years ago is shrouded in mystery to this day.
"The unit is an element of the United States Navy" established "in order to collaborate with the Indonesian Department of Health on health problems of mutual interest," says the U.S. Embassy website.
"The mission of NAMRU-2," the site elaborates, "is to conduct research, tests and evaluation of infectious diseases to enhance the health, safety and readiness of U.S. Armed Forces in the effective performance of peacetime and contingency missions throughout Southeast Asia."
The wording has changed considerably from the original statement, according to which NAMRU-2 was established in Indonesia in 1970 "to investigate infectious diseases of military importance both for the U.S. Navy and the rest of the Department of Defense."
"At the present time, NAMRU-2 is involved throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia in numerous medical research projects including malaria, cholera, typhoid, dengue fever, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, etc." The site also offers an address and office hours, but restricted access to the unit makes these hardly necessary.
Despite its official status of a WHO Collaborating Center, the label under which it also appears in WHO papers, the veil of mystery hangs thick around any details of this collaboration. NAMRU-2 turns down interview requests, referring journalists to the U.S. Embassy, which also refuses to discuss the matter in any detail.
Repeated attempts to peep behind the curtain ? with NAMRU?s permission, of course - brought, at last, a computer presentation with the intriguing name of "N2 Cmd brief Russians." It was more of a polite mockery. The document signed "U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit 2" and obtained through the embassy?s press attach? offered a relevant answer to only one of many questions - on the number of personnel. "There are 17 U.S. personnel at NAMRU-2, all active duty military," it said.
When asked about NAMRU-2?s present legal status, the unit referred to the first memorandum of mutual understanding, signed with Indonesia back in 1970. The document did not specify which memorandum was currently valid.
That was not surprising. As a source in Jakarta diplomatic circles, who insisted on anonymity, said, the latest agreement expired in 2000 and the present official status in Jakarta of U.S. Navy medical researchers with diplomatic passports is - to put it mildly - open to questions. As far as our informant knows, those passports are one of the biggest stumbling blocks in U.S.-Indonesian talks on prolonging the agreement, which have been going on for seven years now. Washington insists on the Navy personnel retaining their diplomatic status.
"I wonder why they insist on it," said another source, an Indonesian foreign ministry officer. "We would be glad to give them work permits with official duty passports, but Washington says diplomatic status would better protect its naval medics."
As Desra Percaya, an Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman, told the author, when U.S. President George W. Bush went to Indonesia toward the end of last year on a visit lasting several hours, he found time to discuss the NAMRU-2 issue with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The summiteers agreed, in principle, to hold further discussions on the unit?s future status, Mr. Percaya added.
One can make his own interpretation on whether the U.S. laboratory in the center of Jakarta has an indefinite legal status, the spokesman remarked.
The entire history of the enigmatic research unit was closely tied to politics long before it appeared in Indonesia. I had some difficulty finding out about its background before I came upon the official U.S. Navy web site. I learned from it that NAMRU-2 was established in Guam during World War II with the same mission of "investigating infectious diseases of military importance," to be transferred, in 1955, to Taiwan - closer to Indochina, a new problem area. During the Vietnam War, the unit worked "not only for operational support in Southeast Asia, but also to expand its research frontier," the official history says.
NAMRU-2 opened in Indonesia as a satellite laboratory of NAMRU-2 Taipei after the first memorandum of understanding was signed in 1970. The parent unit had to shift to the Philippines in 1979, after the U.S. established diplomatic relations with China. The new seat - obviously - was not a random choice, with the Philippines hosting the world?s largest U.S. military bases at the time. "Political turmoil in the Philippines and potential threat against U.S. personnel? led to the parent unit also being moved to Indonesia in 1990. A "2,400 square foot BL3 laboratory from the U.S. Army medical research facility in Korea" soon followed the suit.
Paradoxically, Indonesia that refused to accept U.S. military bases even during the Cold War now hosts Asia?s ? or possibly the world?s ? largest U.S. overseas naval medical research unit under diplomatic protection.
As both NAMRU-2 and the U.S. Embassy gave no answer when I asked why collaboration with the World Health Organization needed secrecy, I turned for information to the WHO itself and to the Indonesian Health Ministry.
http://www.aseanaffairs.com/page/1055055
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