Germany regrets demonstration
Germany regrets demonstration
JAKARTA (JP): The authorities of Sachsen (Saxony), embarrassed
by a hostile demonstration against President Soeharto during his
visit to Dresden, expressed on Wednesday their regret over the
incident.
The apology was personally extended by Kurt Biedenkopf, the
Minister President of Sachsen, during a dinner that he hosted for
Soeharto in Dresden on Wednesday evening.
Biedenkopf apologized and said that such an incident would
prompt a review of the local laws governing public
demonstrations, Indonesian Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono
said.
Germany's ambassador to Jakarta, Heinrich Seeman, also
expressed his regret over the incident, said Moerdiono, who is
accompanying the President on his current overseas tour.
Soeharto, who was on his final leg of a six-day visit to
Germany, was greeted with a riotous demonstration as he toured
the Zwinger museum on Wednesday.
About 100 raucous demonstrators crowded the majestic
surroundings of the museum, throwing anti-Indonesian pamphlets
and shouting profanities and allegations of human rights abuses.
Local security officers initially seemed unprepared,
apparently not anticipating such a protest, and allowed the
demonstrators to close enough to obstruct the entry of President
and Mrs. Tien Soeharto into the museum.
Despite the situation, Soeharto maintained his calm and as he
left the building, under tight security, he smiled and waved to
the hostile crowd.
Later on, ambassador Seeman told Indonesian reporters that he
was ashamed at the way the demonstrators acted.
Demonstrations are a normal occurrence in democracy, he said,
but what happened there was not a demonstration but brutality.
Taking no chances, policemen ran alongside the president's
limousine as it made its way back to the hotel.
Wednesday's incident, according to some suggestions, may have
been instigated by a radical German rights group called Wolf
Pelz, or Wolf Pelt.
Some press reports have also suggested that two of the East
Timorese youths that occupied the United States embassy in
Jakarta last November, and who eventually found asylum in
Portugal, were party to the demonstration.
According to Moerdiono, despite the relentless vocal protests
outside, Soeharto insisted on attending the Biedenkopfs' dinner
reception at the Hilton hotel later that evening. "The president
decided to attend the reception because to cancel it would have
been submitting to the demonstrators' plans," he said.
During the dinner, Soeharto told his host to disregard the
incident. "I can understand what happened and it has past. Let
what has already passed be, because we have to look to the
future," he said.
Moerdiono further asserted that the demonstrations would not
overshadow the president's successful trip to Germany, which
included last Monday's opening of the Indonesian pavilion at the
1995 Hannover Fair.
The president's visit to Germany has been marred by a string
of protests down to the day of his arrival when Soeharto was met
by a hundred demonstrators.
Soeharto yesterday was scheduled to fly from Dresden to
Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, for the second leg of his
four-nation tour. Today he is scheduled to engage in talks with
President Nursultan Nasarbayev.
His next two stops will be in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
Indonesian officials said his visit to the Central Asian
countries is primarily to push Indonesian exports in the former
Soviet republics.
"Indonesia represents a lot for us because of the size of the
population, its economic development and also because it
currently presides over the Non-Aligned Movement," Dulat
Kuanyshev, press secretary to President Nasarbayev told AFP.
(mds)