U.S. has no moral authority to preach human rights: Indonesia
U.S. has no moral authority to preach human rights: Indonesia
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized the U.S. State
Department over its new human rights report, saying Washington
has no moral authority to assess other countries' human rights
records, including Indonesia.
"Simply put, the U.S., as Indonesia has consistently stated
and especially since the horrific discloser on Abu Ghraib, does
not have the moral authority to assume the role of judge and jury
on matters of human rights," Marty A. Natalegawa, the ministry
spokesman told a weekly media briefing on Friday.
Marty was referring to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S.
troops in Iraq.
The U.S. State Department's latest human right report said
that Indonesia made progress in its transition from authoritarian
rule to democracy but its "overall human rights record remained
poor.
Released on Monday, the report is entitled, Supporting Human
Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2003-2004.
"As I understand it, this report, in contrast to the previous
country report on human rights sets out various actions the U.S.
has taken to 'remedy' the problems of human rights in various
countries, including Indonesia," he said.
Marty said the U.S. report "has absolutely no standing
whatsoever".
"It may give the U.S. government moral satisfaction in their
imaginary world. But in the real world the U.S. is not at all in
a position to preach human rights to other countries," he said.
He said the U.S. could not take credit for any progress in the
improvement in the observance of human rights in other countries
as the report implied.
Iraqi prisoners said they were sexually fondled by female
soldiers and forced to eat food from toilets in documents
described by The Washington Post on Friday that included hundreds
of new photos and short video clips of torture by U.S. soldiers
at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail.
The paper said the testimony of abuse obtained from 13 Iraqi
detainees, as well as hundreds of photographs and short digital
video clips, are part of evidence gathered by army investigators
for the courts martial in Iraq of seven U.S. soldiers charged
with abusing detainees.