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)