Anti-Indonesia draft resolution voted down
JAKARTA (JP): A meeting of the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in Geneva has voted against a draft resolution addressing the situation in Indonesia.
The Indonesian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in the Swiss city said on Saturday that nine experts in the subcommittee had voted for the resolution, 14 voted against and one abstained during the secret ballot on Aug. 18.
The draft was proposed by experts from the United States, Norway and Chile, drawing on material from two documents prepared by visiting United Nations rapporteurs to Indonesia and East Timor.
According to the Indonesian mission, the proposed resolution included "unsubstantiated" accusations against Indonesia on the question of East Timor, violations of human rights, including allegations of military intervention in a church conflict.
Before the vote was taken, the Indonesian delegation strongly appealed to the subcommittee members to reject the draft, saying that the allegations were "timeworn, irrelevant, based on one- sided information, and were politically motivated."
The subcommittee, which is in session between July 31 and Aug. 25, is an agency under the United Nations' Human Rights Committee, which is also based in Geneva.
Two previous attempts to pass a resolution against Indonesia, in 1993 and 1994, were also rejected at the vote, a statement issued by the Indonesian mission in Geneva recalled.
The statement praised those experts in the subcommittee who rejected the draft resolution, saying that they were able to assess the condition in Indonesia more objectively.
It also said that before the vote, Indonesian delegates were busy approaching the subcommittee members to provide a more objective and complete picture of the situation in the country.
It said that "anti-Indonesian" organizations and figures, such as the CNRM, OPM, Tapol and the Regional Council on Human Rights in Asia had also been active lobbying the delegates to endorse the resolution. (emb)