U.S. policy on RI not hurt by 'money links'

U.S. policy on RI not hurt by 'money links'

WASHINGTON (Reuter): The State Department said on Wednesday there was no truth in suggestions that U.S. policy on Indonesia had been paralyzed by a controversy over President Bill Clinton's links to Asian money.

"That's nonsense," department spokesman Nicholas Burns said of the allegation in a published report that quoted U.S. diplomats in Jakarta as saying this was the "first tangible example" of the affair hurting U.S. foreign relations.

Donations to Clinton's Democratic Party by people linked to Indonesia's Lippo Group ahead of last year's presidential election touched off a long-running scandal in Washington over contributions by Indonesian, Chinese and Taiwanese nationals.

"It surprises me that people who would be serving in Jakarta would be so blind to the fact that our (Indonesia) policy has moved forward in this administration," Burns told a news briefing.

He said the Clinton administration had taken an active line on human rights, co-sponsoring a UN human rights commission resolution on the situation in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that integrated into Indonesia in 1976.

It had also restricted the transfer to Indonesia of small arms and equipment that could be used to commit human rights abuses, and just Tuesday Clinton met East Timor's Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, he said.

Despite differences on human rights, the United States had a "strategic relationship" with Indonesia and had worked well with Jakarta on arms control, peace-keeping, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) issues, Burns said.

"We do engage the Indonesian leadership on all of these issues," he said.

"I don't know what to make of this article," Burns said, adding that if the anonymous diplomats quoted in the report could be identified, they should be reprimanded.

Diplomacy -- Page 4