US Navy research lab under microscope in Indonesia

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

JAKARTA (AFP) - The future of a major US Navy research laboratory in Indonesia is in doubt amid allegations, dismissed as "crazy" by US diplomats, of espionage and secret experiments.

Negotiations between Washington and Jakarta over the renewal of the operating contract of US Naval Medical Research Unit-2, or Namru-2, have stalled over a range of issues including diplomatic immunity for its US staff.

Established in Indonesia in 1970 and charged with researching infectious diseases of military importance, the facility employs 19 Americans and more than 100 Indonesians and is based in Indonesian health ministry grounds.

Its operations have attracted suspicion from a number of quarters in the world's largest Muslim country, from anti-US religious hardliners to outspoken Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari and Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080502/wl_asia_afp/indonesiaushealthdiplomacy

[Mojorabbit]

1. This is a mess

I have been following the situation closely.

[zonkers]

2. Sounds like the Dharma Initiative.

[dipsydoodle]

4. My daughter

will just love that comment. :rofl:

[hack89]

3. What a lot of BS

This lab is on the forefront of studies in dysentery and other tropical diseases. They have been there for 30 years. Indonesia would only be hurting themselves.

If you want to study tropical diseases you need to be in the tropics.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Doesn't help explain

the need for diplomatic immunity.

[hack89]

6. Because they are part of the US government

Foreign militaries that have units and bases in America also have immunity - it's considered sovereign territory.

[Gman]

7. The problem is they're not diplomats

in any sense of the definition. If you're not a diplomat you have no right to diplomatic immunity. They're scientists. This is no different than the US exempting itself from the ICC. If you do nothing wrong, you have nothing to be afraid of, to quote the RW.