Govt rejects plan for UN rights office here<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government denied yesterday a United Nations
\nofficials' claim that a human rights office would open here soon
\nto monitor the situation in East Timor.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian foreign ministry's director for international
\norganizations, N. Hassan Wirayuda, told The Jakarta Post that no
\nagreement to set up an office here had been reached.<\/p>\n
\"There are not enough grounds for the commissioner to place a
\nrepresentative in Jakarta to monitor the human rights situation
\nin East Timor,\" Hassan said.<\/p>\n
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Ayala Lasso
\nexpressed the hope in Geneva Wednesday that an agreement might
\nsoon be reached with Jakarta to allow the commissioner to place a
\nrepresentative here.<\/p>\n
Lasso further claimed that Indonesia had made a new proposal
\non the matter a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n
Hassan maintained yesterday that such statements were untrue.<\/p>\n
He explained that Indonesia had for several years conducted
\ntalks on technical cooperation in the field of human rights with
\nthe human rights commissioner and the human rights center in
\nGeneva.<\/p>\n
A memorandum of intent on the technical cooperation was signed
\nin October 1994. The cooperation entailed a broad cooperation in
\nhuman rights development and awareness in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
However, according to Hassan, there have been attempts to
\ndeviate the cooperation into human rights monitoring such as
\nwould be implied by having a human rights office here.<\/p>\n
He said it would be completely untrue to suggest that
\nIndonesia had agreed to the establishment of a monitoring office
\nsince what had been signed in 1994 covered only technical
\ncooperation.<\/p>\n
\"We have observed since last year a tendency to shift away
\nfrom the technical cooperation aspect,\" he said.<\/p>\n
When asked why he thought Lasso would make such a statement,
\nHassan replied: \"There's probably pressure from western countries
\non Ayala Lasso's office to head in that direction.\"<\/p>\n
As a follow-up to the memorandum signed in 1994, the UN
\nCommissioner's office presented a draft memorandum of
\nunderstanding last year. Unfortunately, said Hassan, the draft
\nhad veered away from technical cooperation into human rights
\nmonitoring.<\/p>\n
\"As a counter, we presented our own draft two weeks ago ...
\nwhich contains no elements of human rights monitoring,\" Hassan
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Thus, he argued, it would be untrue to suggest that
\nIndonesia's recent proposal, as remarked by Lasso, meant the
\nestablishment of a UN human rights office here was likely in the
\nnear future.<\/p>\n
The post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was created
\nafter the 1993 UN Human Rights Conference in Vienna.<\/p>\n
Lasso is soon to step down from his three-year term to become
\nforeign minister of Ecuador.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian delegation to the 50th annual meeting of the UN
\nhuman rights commission, due to begin Monday in Geneva, would be
\nheaded by the foreign ministry's director general for political
\naffairs Izhar Ibrahim.<\/p>\n
Hassan would not predict whether the question of East Timor
\nwould be raised in either a resolution or the chairman's
\nstatement. \"We'll have to wait and see whether they decide to
\nbring it up,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The former Portuguese colony of East Timor has been a regular
\ninclusion in the commission chairman's statement for the past few
\nyears. It integrated into Indonesia in 1976, but the United
\nNations still considers Lisbon the administering power there.<\/p>\n
The issue is expected to be discussed in the second half of
\nthe six-week meeting. (mds)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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