Political donations won't hurt U.S.-RI ties: Envoy

Political donations won't hurt U.S.-RI ties: Envoy

WASHINGTON (AFP): Indonesia's ambassador here expressed hope
Tuesday that a recent controversy over large political donations
linked to an Indonesian banking family would not spark a backlash
against Jakarta.

Arifin Siregar also defended Indonesia's record in East Timor,
the former Portuguese colony it annexed 20 years ago, and voiced
incredulity at the Nobel peace prize awarded to exiled East
Timorese activist Jose Ramos Horta.

"We cannot understand what kind of criteria they used in order
to arrive at the choice of Ramos Horta" for the prestigious peace
prize, he said, though he praised co-winner Bishop Carlos Felipe
Ximenes Belo.

Belo and Ramos Horta received their prizes in Oslo on Tuesday,
refocusing international scrutiny on Indonesia's integration of
the territory.

Siregar stressed that his government had nothing to do with
hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to the
Democratic National Committee by several people linked to
Indonesia's billionaire Riady clan, owners of the Lippo Group
conglomerate.

He also worried aloud that some U.S. officials might be put
off dealing with Indonesia by charges that those contributions --
and several White House visits by family scion James Riady -- may
have improperly swayed U.S. policy toward the Southeast Asian
country.

"Whether explicit or implicit, some people think that
(donations by some Indonesians have) influenced U.S. policy
toward Indonesia, which is not true," Siregar told reporters at
the National Press club here.

"You could imagine that some administration people would like
to take a distance from Indonesia because of the implied or
explicit accusation as a consequence of these donations," he
said. "We hope that it's not the case, but it could happen."

In the waning days of the U.S. election campaign, Republicans
charged that Indonesian-linked donations had afforded improper
White House access for Riady and suggested he had swayed
President Bill Clinton to alter U.S. Asia policy.

Clinton himself rejected that assertion in a news conference
three days after his re-election, and experts here generally
agree that Clinton has largely endorsed the Indonesia policy of
his predecessor, George Bush.

In his first term, Clinton abandoned 1992 campaign pledges to
get tough on human rights abusers and embraced a strategy of
"constructive engagement" toward Asian giants China and
Indonesia.

Siregar cited "a gradual change in the approach of the U.S.
government to Indonesia" -- notably, a less heavy-handed approach
to human rights -- and added: "We welcome that very much indeed."

But he said Indonesia had also made concessions on issues such
as human rights and worker rights, which along with East Timor
are chronic sources of friction with western governments.