Developed countries 'use rights issue for protection'

Developed countries 'use rights issue for protection'

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto said yesterday that developed
countries used human rights issues merely as a pretext to protect
their own economic and political interests.

The industrialized countries often used irrelevant issues to
disrupt developing countries' development programs because their
own economic growth was discouraging while some developing
countries grew steadily, he said.

Soeharto said this was why Indonesia faced mounting pressure
from the U.S. Congress and other sources over its human rights
record.

"They manipulate human rights, democratization, labor problems
for their own interests," Soeharto told journalists aboard a
Garuda Indonesia aircraft while returning from Sunday's summit of
eight predominantly Moslem developing countries (D-8) in
Istanbul, Turkey.

"You can see how pressure is mounting on Indonesia, from U.S.
Congress' resolution on East Timor from Senator Kennedy,"
Soeharto said, referring to Patrick Kennedy who is campaigning to
stall U.S. aid to Indonesia.

"We have to prove that we in Indonesia implement human rights
according to our understanding and concept of it," he said.

Last month, Indonesia canceled the purchase of nine U.S. F-16
jet fighters and pulled out of the American-run International
Military Education Training (IMET) in response to several
congressmen's insistence that the jet fighter sale be canceled to
censure Jakarta for its human rights record.

Congressman Patrick Kennedy drafted the Indonesia Military
Assistance Accountability Act aimed at stalling aid to Indonesia.
The US$600,000 IMET program trains senior foreign military
officers.

Soeharto told President Clinton, in a letter dated 26 May,
that "wholly unjustified criticism in the U.S. Congress against
Indonesia" was one of the factors that led to the cancellation.

"We want peace instead of war, dialog instead of
confrontation, cooperation instead of exploitation, equality
instead of discrimination, justice instead of double standards
and democracy instead of oppression," Soeharto recited the
principles of the D-8 contained in Sunday's declaration.

He acknowledged that developing countries had to set up
organizations, including the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which has
113 members, Group of 77 (G-77) and Group of 15 (G-15), to
counter the strength of developed countries.

"But the cooperation groups have become so big that they are
no longer effective," the president said.

Indonesia hosted a NAM summit in Jakarta in September 1992 and
chaired it for three years before handing it over to Columbia.

The movement recently rejected a bid by the International
Labor Organization's (ILO) chief, Michel Hansenne, to move
towards a system of social labeling of goods produced in
conformity with ILO's core labor standards.

The G-15 consists of prominent developing countries including
Malaysia and Indonesia. Malaysia is expected to host a G-15
summit in October.

Soeharto said the D-8 leaders had asked Indonesia to
coordinate poverty alleviation programs because of its long
experience which had earned it recognition from the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Last week the UN agency praised Indonesia's success in
reducing poverty and developing human resources.

The UNDP will hold a world conference on poverty alleviation
in Jakarta this year.

"The UNDP will give an award to us on Sept. 8," Soeharto said.

He said Indonesia had won several awards from international
organizations including the Food and Agriculture Organization for
successfully achieving self-sufficiency in rice and its family
planning program. (06)