Rights body won't heed foreign gripes

Rights body won't heed foreign gripes

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights is not interested in responding to foreign criticisms of the human rights situation in Indonesia.

"It is better to work on improving respect for human rights than to respond to criticisms," Secretary General of the National Commission on Human Rights, Baharuddin Lopa, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

Lopa made the remarks in connection with persistent criticism abroad of perceived human rights abuses in Indonesia. This week, activists in Europe demonstrated their objections during President Soeharto's visit to Germany.

In the latest incident, about 100 human rights and conservationist activists shouted hostile slogans as the President arrived at Dresden castle for talks with local leaders.

Lopa said that it would be useless for the commission to keep engaging such criticism because Western mass media would not report on its replies.

The commission was working, he said, on improving the implementation of human rights in Indonesia.

"We keep on working, no matter whether people criticize or do not criticize Indonesia's human rights record," he said.

Established by the government in 1993, the 25-member commission has received considerable applause from the local public for the steps it has taken to protect people's rights.

It has played a mediating role in numerous cases involving the oppressed, such as unfair treatment of workers and the acquisition of farmers' land for development projects.

Recently, it conducted an investigation into the controversial killing by the army of six East Timorese believed to be Fretilin pro-independence rebels.

Lopa denied suggestions that the commission had paid special attention to the question of human rights in the former Portuguese colony.

"We pay the same attention to all people throughout the country," he said. (29)