Indonesia has improved but abuses continue: U.S. report
Indonesia has improved but abuses continue: U.S. report
WASHINGTON (AFP): The resignation of Indonesia's President Soeharto led to broader freedoms, but serious unrest and official abuses continue, the State Department said in its annual human rights report Friday.
"Indonesia's authoritarian political system came under sustained challenge during 1998, resulting in President Soeharto's departure from office and opening an opportunity for meaningful political and economic reforms," the report said.
"The ultimate result of this reform effort remains unclear," it added, noting continued widespread corruption, abuses by security forces, and official inaction to counter violence against minority ethnic Chinese.
Government curbs on freedom of expression eased substantially both before and after Soeharto stepped down in May after 32 years in power, while official tolerance of worker rights improved marginally.
But the State Department survey cited reports of continued serious violations -- including extrajudicial killings -- in areas with active separatist movements: Aceh, Irian Jaya, and East Timor.
"Credible sources confirmed some 37 extrajudicial killings in East Timor in the first eight months" of 1998, the report said. Jakarta has since offered the former Portuguese territory autonomy or independence.
In Irian Jaya, a remote province bordering Papua New Guinea, the government has confirmed 11 extrajudicial killings in 1996 and is probing 43 other deaths Irianese churches say were caused by the military.
And in Aceh, according to a preliminary report by the National Human Rights Commission, security forces effected "hundreds of instances of killings, disappearances, and torture," the report said.
Major unrest meanwhile continued in the face of Indonesia's ongoing economic crisis, which erupted in mid-1997 and spurred massive unemployment, food shortages, and a substantial drop in living standards.
"Widespread corruption remained a problem. Major unrest spurred demands both for the government to act more effectively to address social and economic inequities and to curb disorder," the report said.
In testimony prepared for delivery in Congress Friday, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Harold Koh cited broader press freedom and the release of political prisoners as notable improvements.
But he added that U.S. officials "remain deeply concerned... by the high levels of violence: intercommunal conflict, the shooting of peaceful demonstrators by security forces, and the terrible attacks on Sino-Indonesians, especially the rapes of ethnic Chinese women and girls during the May riots."
"The government has not thoroughly investigated these abuses, nor has it consistently held perpetrators accountable," Koh said. "We are fully committed to supporting Indonesia's transition to democratic governance, a transition that Secretary (of State Madeleine) Albright has identified as a priority."