U.S. 'seriously disturbed' by Indonesian crackdown
U.S. 'seriously disturbed' by Indonesian crackdown
WASHINGTON (Agencies): The United States said on Monday it was seriously disturbed by a crackdown by Indonesian authorities on opposition demonstrators at the weekend, and urged Jakarta to respect rights to free speech and assembly, Reuters reported.
"We're seriously disturbed by the use of violence to end what had been a peaceful assembly," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said.
"The United States government, as you know, supports the rights of freedom of peaceful assembly, the freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of the press, respect for the rule of law and democratic processes.
"And we're deeply concerned by the apparent violation of these rights during the events in Jakarta over the weekend.
"We call on the Indonesian government to ensure that these rights are protected in the future, and to guarantee that those arrested and detained in connection with these events are given due process of the law," he said.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher attended the series of ministerial meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta last week.
He declined a request for meeting from PDI chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri but sent his Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Joan Spero on his behalf.
Separately, Human Rights Watch -- the international watchdog organization -- issued a statement on Monday criticizing the "use of violence" and the government's failure "to differentiate between peaceful protesters and vandals."
In Canberra, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer expressed Australia's "concern" on Monday about the weekend rioting, AFP reported.
"We're obviously concerned to see the degree of unrest that has taken place there and we hope that the situation will settle down very quickly," Downer told reporters.
Asked if Australia was concerned about the use of force to crack down on protesters, he said: "Well, we don't conduct our affairs in Australia in the same way."