RI won't apply all Beijing pacts

RI won't apply all Beijing pacts

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will not implement certain
recommendations made in the two final documents of the Fourth
World Conference on Women in Beijing, despite endorsing it,
Minister of Women's Roles Mien Sugandhi said yesterday.

Indonesia endorsed the documents for the sake of consensus,
but it reserves the right to decide in implementing the
commitments, Mien, chief of the Indonesian delegation to Beijing,
said.

The minister briefed President Soeharto on the conference
yesterday, at Merdeka Palace. The conference reached an eleventh
hour consensus on the final declaration and the Platform for
Action, supposedly the blueprint for action on improving the
conditions of women worldwide.

Despite the endorsement, many countries, including Indonesia,
registered reservations on a number of contentious issues. United
Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in a written
speech at the conference's closing, appealed to all countries to
implement the programs.

After meeting with Soeharto, Mien said that implementation of
the Beijing recommendations is a decision each participating
country must make.

Indonesia could not accept some of the points on sexual rights
and on the concept of a family, she said.

She declined to state Indonesia's position on sexual rights,
but on the concept of a family, she said Indonesia is insisting
that a family is a married couple, a man and a woman, and their
children.

Mien, who represented President Soeharto in Beijing, said that
overall, the congress has been successful for Indonesia.

She said the acceptance of a paper presented by delegations
from members of the Non-aligned Movement, which was headed by
Indonesia, and a UNESCO award for Indonesia's Family Welfare
Movement, helped bolster Indonesia's prestige.

There was also a reference to the progress of Indonesian
women, made by U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in her
address to the forum, she said.

Mrs. Clinton visited Indonesia when she accompanied the
American president, who was attending the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum last November. (emb)