# 1935
A hat tip to Crof on Crofsblog for picking up this story from the Jakarta Post on increasing calls by the Indonesian House of Representatives to investigate the operations of NAMRU-2.
In what must make for good politics in Indonesia, lawmakers are continuing to suggest through innuendo alone that our NAMRU-2 lab personnel have been conducting spying operations in their country. Calls for an investigation are increasing.
One has to hope that all of this sound and fury is for show, and that cooler heads are working towards a diplomatic solution.
The stakes are simply too high for rhetoric to rule.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 2:33 PM
House calls for inquiry into U.S. lab
Abdul Khalik and Suherdjoko , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta, Semarang | Tue, 04/29/2008 12:52 PM | National
Members of the House of Representatives have moved to establish a special task force to investigate U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 (Namru-2).
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) proposed the interfaction fact-finding team because of allegations the U.S. laboratory is engaging in espionage and the lack of apparent benefits to Indonesia from their research, said senior PDI-P lawmaker Sidarto Danusubroto.
"We propose the House form a task force to investigate the lab to reassure the public that it isn't spying on us and that it really benefits the country," he told The Jakarta Post.
Sidarto, a member of the House's Commission I on security, defense and foreign affairs, said the team would urge the laboratory to be transparent in its operations.
Lawmaker Hakim Sorimuda Pohan of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party supported the idea, saying Indonesian scientists could take over the work of the laboratory's researchers.
"We will summon the health minister to discuss the issue further. I see no need for the lab to continue operating here," he told the Post.
Indonesia and the United States are now negotiating a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) to extend the operation of Namru-2. The previous agreement expired in 2005.
Indonesia offered last week to grant diplomatic immunity to only two U.S. officials at Namru-2 and demanded the laboratory become more transparent.
In a response through its embassy, the United States insisted all 19 of its citizens working at Namru-2 be given diplomatic immunity.
The United States denied the laboratory lacked transparency.
Demands for Namru-2 to be closed down have been mounting in recent weeks.
