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.