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)