Local activists blast Wolf over rights review

SEMARANG (JP): An Indonesian human rights activist blasted American Congressman Frank Wolf's assessment of Indonesia's human rights record in East Timor as ungrounded and politically motivated.

Muladi of the National Commission on Human Rights said here yesterday the statements made by Wolf of Virginia were biased, negative, fragmented and unfair.

"Wolf spoke only about the issue of human rights in the context of civilian and political rights, and that approach is not appropriate for the situation in East Timor," he told The Jakarta Post.

"When we speak about human rights, we have to do it by comparing also people's political, economic, social, cultural rights and their right to develop."

"Compared to other parts of the country such as Irian Jaya, the people of East Timor already have their economic, social and cultural rights, as well as their right to develop, being met," he said.

Following a two-day trip to the East Timor capital of Dili, Wolf released earlier this week statements criticizing the large military presence there, and alleging a poor human rights record and that the military were involved in criminal activities.

Quickly following on the heels of Wolf's report the United States State Department's annual human rights worldwide survey was released Thursday, placing Indonesia high on its list for human rights abuses along with Myanmar, Pakistan, India, North Korea and Cambodia.

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor was integrated into Indonesia in 1976, a move never recognized by the United Nations and many other Western states, which still acknowledges Portugal as the province's administrative power.

"Like many of his counterparts in the West, Wolf accentuates only the negative aspects in East Timor and fails to pay attention to the positive side, like people's increased per capita income, since integration in 1976, " Muladi said.

He cited, among other things, East Timor's improved living standards and better roads over the last 20 years, better conditions than were available during the 450 years of servitude under Portuguese colonial rule.

Muladi, also rector of Semarang's Diponegoro University, called for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Ali Alatas to make a strong, confident move by presenting evidence of development to counteract Wolf's statement.

International law observer Yasin Tasrif of the university's law department seconded Muladi, calling Wolf's statement biased and Wolf lacking the knowledge required to understand East Timor's problems.

However, Yasin said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should not take Wolf's statement too seriously as it was a personal comment and everyone had the right to criticize East Timor's human rights conditions.

"Unless criticism comes from a human rights commission under the United Nations then Indonesia must take a proactive stance to East Timor's human rights conditions," he said.

Yasin said: "Given Clinton's tendency to intervene in other country's human rights conditions, it's possible he will always question human rights in Indonesia, especially East Timor's, even if the United States' record on human rights may not be far from perfect." (har/01)