Indonesian diplomacy suffers a setback: Rights official

JAKARTA (JP): The United Nations' resolution criticizing Indonesia's human rights performance in East Timor has dented Jakarta's diplomatic efforts to resolve the East Timor question, an official of the National Commission on Human Rights said.

"This is a setback for our diplomacy," commission vice chairman Marzuki Darusman told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

"The resolution however, won't help much to improve the conditions in East Timor," Marzuki said.

Separately, Salvador Ximenes Soares, a senior East Timorese politician, called the resolution, issued at the closing of the UN Human Rights Commission annual meeting in Geneva on Wednesday, a confrontation by Portugal and the European Union.

"The government anticipated the resolution from the beginning, when Portugal and the European Union prepared the text," said the member of the House of Representatives from the Golkar faction.

"Indonesia believes that problems cannot be solved only by resolutions or a confrontation," he said.

Salvador said East Timor had achieved much progress since it was integrated into Indonesia in 1976. "Portugal should not be hypocritical about this," he said.

The European Union-sponsored resolution was passed 20-14. Russia and Japan were among the 18 countries that abstained.

The resolution criticized the alleged human rights violations in the former Portuguese colony and called on Jakarta to allow UN investigators to visit the territory this year.

Both East Timorese 1996 Nobel peace laureates addressed the commission's meeting -- Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo sent a letter, while East Timor's self-exiled separatist spokesman Jose Ramos Horta traveled to Geneva, armed with videos of alleged torture. Indonesia says the videos were faked.

Marzuki said Indonesia must never underestimate the power the two Nobel winners have to influence international public opinion on East Timor. The government should be prepared for increasing international pressures, he said.

"That's the reality," he said, adding that "like an ostrich, the government seems to be trying to escape reality."

Marzuki said he believed Bishop Belo's letter influenced the vote.

"In the letter, Belo said there was no improvement in the human rights situation in East Timor. Belo is demanding improvements," he said.

When asked about the human rights situation in East Timor, Marzuki said "it has been fluctuating".

In the last three years, Indonesia has succeeded in averting Portuguese attempts to pass resolutions criticizing its handling of East Timor at the commission's annual meetings.

The last resolution was issued in 1993. In 1994, 1995 and 1996, references to East Timor were only made in the chairman's statements.

The United Nations, which has been mediating talks between Indonesia and Portugal on the status of East Timor, still recognizes Lisbon as the administering power there. (06)