Australia, NZ differ on rights

JAKARTA (JP): Australian and New Zealand foreign ministers issued totally different viewpoints on human rights conditions in Indonesia during separate bilateral talks with their Indonesian counterpart Ali Alatas yesterday.

Australia's Foreign Minister Gareth Evans insisted that Indonesia's human rights record was still "poor" with New Zealand's Don McKinnon saying that the condition was improving.

Evans told journalists after meeting with Alatas at the Jakarta Convention Center, the venue of the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) meetings, that he had expressed concern and disappointment over "poor" respect for human rights in Indonesia.

He referred to the closure of three weeklies in June, the "cleaning up operation" for the APEC meetings, the imprisonment of labor activist Mochtar Pakpahan and the presence of the military in East Timor.

Pakpahan was sentenced to three years in jail early this month for organizing a labor demonstration that turned into anti-ethnic Chinese violence, resulting in the death of a businessman.

"Three years is a very, very heavy sentence...," he said.

Unlike Evans, McKinnon praised the progress of the human rights condition in East Timor.

"A number of New Zealand members of parliament who recently visited East Timor came back to me and reported they were satisfied with the issue regarding human rights," McKinnon told reporters.

He said the parliamentarians were satisfied with what the Indonesian government had done to develop East Timor, which was integrated into Indonesia in 1976.

To further improve the human rights condition in the country, Indonesia should ratify more United Nations conventions on human rights, he said.

Marzuki Darusman, vice chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights, expressed concern over the surfacing of human rights issues at the APEC meeting.

He argued that the issues should be discussed in a different, more appropriate forum.

He said it would be inappropriate to discuss human rights issue in the APEC forum as any discussion could not be thorough.

"What needs to be done is to define where this issue can be accommodated," said Marzuki, a former member of the House of Representatives.

The United States Secretary Warren Christopher will meet the Commission officials on Wednesday to exchange views on human rights, according to Marzuki.

He said human rights was of international concern and should be seen within the context of international cooperation.

"But the primary responsibility of implementing human rights lies with each country," he said.

Marzuki said he understood that other countries raised human rights issues in the bilateral talks with Indonesia, saying: "We've got sensible people up there and if this is represented in a sensible way they will get sensible responses."

Marzuki said he observed that there had been improvement in the human rights condition in the country, which was reflected by greater openness in discussing the issue.

The National Commission on Human Rights, which was established by President Soeharto last year, addressed the matter in an open and public way with the hope that this would set Indonesia's human rights record straight.

Though the commission was established by the president, it was totally independent, Marzuki said.(sim)