Muchtar, Ratna to get awards

Muchtar, Ratna to get awards

JAKARTA (JP): Labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan and playwright
Ratna Sarumpaet have been named as recipients of awards by two
separate international bodies advocating human rights.

The awards will be handed at separate ceremonies on Dec. 10,
to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.

Muchtar, 46, chairman of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor
Union, will receive the French Republic Prize for the Defenders
of Human Rights 1998 from the French government.

"Mr. Muchtar Pakpahan has been selected along with four other
personalities," a statement from the French embassy here said.

Muchtar is known as a proponent of free labor unions, which
were greatly restricted under the rule of former president
Soeharto.

He will receive his award in Paris.

"The official ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights will take place in the
grand hall at Chaillot, Paris, where the declaration was
originally adopted," the statement said.

Another Indonesian, Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Felipe
Ximenes Belo, has also been invited to attend the ceremony.

Other dignitaries slated to attend are French President
Jacques Chirac, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and UNESCO
Director General Federico Mayor.

Meanwhile, Ratna, 49, playwright turned political activist,
will receive the 1998 Female Human Rights Special Award from the
Tokyo-based Foundation for Human Rights in Asia.

She is among three recipients of this year's award, which has
been given out since 1996, Antara reported from Tokyo on Monday.

Ratna's play Marsinah Menggugat (Marsinah Sues), about slain
labor activist Marsinah, was banned by the Indonesian government
on a number of occasions.

During the twilight of Soeharto's rule, Ratna founded a loose
alliance of supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri and Amien Rais
called SIAGA, Solidaritas Amien-Mega.

Since Soeharto's downfall, she has continued to call for
political reforms in the country. (aan)