Indonesian diplomacy suffers a setback: Rights official

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)