Booming economy, newly won freedoms contrast with alleged abuse by the military, police
Indonesian soldiers patrol Istiqlal Mosque ahead of the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama in Jakarta, Indonesia on Monday. Obama is expected to arrive on Tuesday.
The Associated Press 
JAKARTA, Indonesia — President Barack Obama's next stop on a tour of Asian democracies is an emerging economic power but also a country where U.S.-backed military and police still stifle dissent.
Just ask Anggen Pugu Kiwo, who became a symbol of ongoing abuses in far-flung regions when a video appeared on the Internet showing him being tortured by men who were allegedly soldiers.The 50-year-old was shown lying naked on the gravel as one of his interrogators stood roughly on his chest and another placing burning stick to his genitals.
"I thought I was going to die," Kiwo said softly, his voice shaking. "At one point I prayed they would just shoot me."
Obama bypasses India's outsourcing capital When Obama arrives in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, on Tuesday he will find a country almost unrecognizable from the one he knew as a child.
Since emerging from decades of dictatorship under Gen. Suharto in 1998, the nation of 237 million people has made tremendous strides toward democracy, scrapping repressive laws, freeing the media and allowing citizens to directly pick their own leaders.
Allegations of abuse It also has one of the fastest growing economies in the region, thanks to a booming stock market, abundant natural resources, and consumers who are eager to spend.
But while its military has made tentative steps toward reforms, it continues to be accused of abusing citizenry in the sprawling nation's separatist-torn regions, like Papua.
Activists are regularly given lengthy prison terms for peacefully expressing their views, organizing rallies or for simply raising pro-independence flags.
Foreign journalists, human rights workers and academics are denied access to the region, making allegations of abuse almost impossible to verify.
But increasingly videos, like that of Kiwo are surfacing online.
In August, footage emerged of another prisoner, Yawen Wayeni, lying in a jungle clearing moments after troops allegedly sliced open his abdomen with a bayonet, sending intestines tumbling from his stomach.
Using the little life he has left in him, he lifts his arm into the air, and says weakly, "Freedom! Papua ... Freedom!"
In both cases, the government has denied security forces were involved but promised to investigate.
The United States agreed under the George W. Bush administration to lift a trade embargo imposed over concerns about military human rights violations under Suharto — partially to reward the country's efforts to fight terrorism.
Ban on military help lifted And in July, Obama decided to lift a decadelong ban on military assistance to a notoriously violent commando unit, known as Kopassus, as the administration sought to shore up influence in the region amid increasing challenges from China.
That has incensed rights workers and victims of abuse.
"Obama is rewarding Kopassus without requiring accountability," said Suciwati, the widow of slain human rights activist, Munir Thalib, who documented atrocities carried by the military.
He was poisoned to death in 2004 on a flight between Jakarta and Amsterdam. Though intelligence agents were brought to trial, no one has ever been held accountable.
"I fear that the Indonesian security services will again get away with murder," said Suciwati.
U.S.-trained forces at the core of Indonesia's anti-terror fight, Detachment 88, have also been accused of torturing pro-independence activists from the Moluccan islands in 2007 after they unfurled their flag at a ceremony attended by the president.
The were beaten, forced to crawl on their stomachs over hot asphalt, whipped with an electric cable and hit on the head with rifle butts until their ears bled, according to Amnesty International.
That wouldn't surprise Kiwo, who appeared on a video made available Monday by Human Rights Watch, explaining the harrowing three days he spent with his torturers.
He said when soldiers initially stopped him at a checkpoint in Puncak Jaya last May and told him to get off his motorbike, he thought they were just going to ask for cigarettes.
Instead he was pulled behind their tiny shack, accused of being a separatist fighter.
That wouldn't surprise Kiwo, who appeared on a video made available Monday by Human Rights Watch, explaining the harrowing three days he spent with his torturers.
He said when soldiers initially stopped him at a checkpoint in Puncak Jaya last May and told him to get off his motorbike, he thought they were just going to ask for cigarettes.
Instead he was pulled behind their tiny shack, accused of being a separatist fighter.
The abuse didn't stop with the burning of his genitals, he said. Barbed wire was wrapped around his legs, cigarettes were stubbed out in his face, and he was beaten in the neck and back with a wooden stick until it broke in half.
When they finally let him go, he dragged himself to his family.
"They were afraid to approach me, shake my hands because they'd heard I'd been killed by the military," Kiwo trembled.
"They thought it was just my shadow."
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