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."