European Union insists aid be linked to human rights
JAKARTA (JP): The European Union will insist on making human rights a condition of its financial assistance to any members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a senior French official said yesterday.
French Minister for European Affairs Alain Lamassoure said however that he is optimistic that the union and ASEAN will be able to come to a compromise on the issue when it is raised at their next ministerial meeting in September in Karlsruhe, Germany.
"I am optimistic that we will reach an agreement," he told a press conference held at the residence of French Ambassador Dominique Girard in Jakarta.
Lamassoure, who arrived here on Thursday for a two-day official visit, has already met with Vice President Try Sutrisno, Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman, Minister of Defense and Security Edi Sudradjat and leaders of the National Commission on Human Rights.
He flew in from Bangkok after attending talks with ASEAN ministers in his capacity as a representative of the European Union. The issue of human rights and its link with aid was hotly debated between the two regional groups in Bangkok.
Lamassoure said the EU included such clauses in all its agreements with its partner countries, and therefore both EU and the partner country must be committed to and abide by the principles of human rights, democracy and rules of law.
He emphasized that it is a general clause, having no specific provision, as each country is entitled to "adapt its own form of democracy."
"The clause is applied between the EU, countries of Africa and has been accepted by countries of Latin America," he said.
He said he is confident that ASEAN countries, too, could easily include human rights clauses in their agreements with the EU, since ASEAN, he said, "has not refused in principle."
He added that the only difficulty which might arise is the problem of "specific wordings" which would be adopted.
"But I trust that we will be able to reach a wording that will be acceptable to both sides," he said, stressing that the clauses will be applicable to all, including EU itself.
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ASEAN, including Indonesia, has resisted attempts by Western countries to link human rights and democracy with foreign aid, saying that such conditionalities amounted to an attempt to interfere in domestic affairs and therefore are a violation of their sovereignty.
Indonesia in 1992 rejected any new aid from the Netherlands while accusing The Hague of meddling too much in RI's internal affairs.
Lamassoure, who had talks with leaders of the National Commission on Human Rights, said he hopes the commission will succeed in their work.
"It is important for the Indonesians themselves to give an assessment and make a judgment on the situation in their country," he pointed out.
He said he also discussed the issue of East Timor with the commission's leaders, as he considers it an international problem, which is also a subject of discussion at the United Nations. "We both agreed that the discussions that are held under the auspices of the UN Secretary General must succeed."
He added that a solution to the East Timor dispute will also enable the EU, as well as France, to achieve a new cooperation agreement with Indonesia, which has a greater and deeper political content.(pwn)