Confusion muddles Amien's U.S. visit
Confusion muddles Amien's U.S. visit
JAKARTA (JP): Confusion reigned yesterday over whether Moslem
leader Amien Rais is going to address a hearing of a United
States congressional subcommittee on Indonesia's human rights
record after all.
He may instead be given the opportunity to hold a media
conference on Capitol Hill, Washington, Antara reported Saturday.
"I received a telephone call from a congressman at about 9
a.m. (Saturday), saying that I may not address the hearing of the
Congress' International Operations and Human Rights subcommittee
as earlier planned," said the chairman of the 28-million-strong
Muhammadiyah Moslem organization.
However, a separate Antara report from New York yesterday said
that not only was Amien going to testify before Congress, he was
also scheduled to meet former U.S. president Jimmy Carter in
Atlanta.
The news agency said it learned from the National Council of
Churches in the United States (NCC) on Saturday that Amien was
slated to meet the Congress committee on Wednesday and Carter on
Saturday.
On April 30, Amien will meet the media in Washington, and on
May 1 leave for Atlanta to meet Carter -- a renowned leading
human rights activist -- the report continued.
Amien left for New York Saturday evening with J.M. Pattiassina
of the Communion of Indonesian Churches and S.A.E. Nababan, who
is a moderator of the World Council of Churches. Amien is
scheduled to be in Washington tomorrow.
The congressman, whom Amien did not name, did not tell him the
grounds for canceling the hearing. "Perhaps the timing is not
appropriate," Amien said, but did not elaborate.
He speculated there were certain parties who did not want him
to appear before Congress and give testimony about several inter-
religious conflicts in Indonesia, for which he was invited by the
National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.
"I have an invitation in (writing) that I am wanted to testify
before a U.S. Congress subcommittee on April 28," he said.
The council of churches is reportedly opposing a bill proposed
by Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia and Senator Arlen Specter
of Pennsylvania, that would impose economic sanctions on
Indonesia for its allegedly poor rights record.
Amien declined to disclose the speech he was originally
supposed to deliver, but said that some formal and nonformal
institutions, including several non-governmental organizations,
had provided him with valuable information to support his stance
over the rights situation in Indonesia.
He was planning to use this information to make comparisons
with information the U.S. government has at present.
The NCC feels that the testimony from the Indonesian
delegation will be of crucial importance as Congress will soon
issue a freedom from religious persecution act, Antara reported.
(imn)