Soeharto warns foreign press

Soeharto warns foreign press

NEW YORK (AFP): Indonesian President Soeharto warned that negative press reports about his country could provoke violence in the Southeast Asian nation, according to Newsweek magazine.

"Continuing to blow up the issues of poverty and income gaps without offering a realistic concept for solving them may provoke the sensitivity of our diverse community," Soeharto said in an interview in the March 17 issue of the magazine's international edition.

"Sometimes such sensitivity leads to riots and destruction of property, even of our social foundations," he said.

Indonesia has been rocked by violent political, social and economic unrest in recent months, including ethnic and religious riots.

On Saturday, Soeharto told a group of prominent businessmen in Jakarta that "destructive" people could use the wealth gap to cause unrest. It was the third warning in barely a week against dissent.