U.S. slams Indonesia over human rights

U.S. slams Indonesia over human rights

WASHINGTON (Agencies): The United States issued a sharply critical report of human rights in Indonesia Friday, saying its government, now mired in economic crisis, had vigorously repressed political opposition.

In an annual report on human rights around the world in 1997, the State Department said although President Soeharto's government tightly restricted freedom of expression, "at year's end government critics were speaking out more boldly."

The report was issued as the Clinton administration sought backing in Congress for its decision to support an International Monetary Fund rescue plan for Indonesia and other Asian states hit by the regional financial turmoil.

Many members of Congress have criticized the policy, saying the United States should not be involved in an IMF rescue.

Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott took preemptive aim at such criticism on Friday, telling a news conference that strong U.S. support for IMF bailouts in Asia would foster greater openness and transparency.

Washington has pledged but not yet released US$3 billion for the International Monetary Fund's $40 billion Indonesian rescue package.

Soeharto, 76, has said he will stand for a seventh five year- term.

The report cited a few areas of modest improvement in Indonesia.

These included "limited yet significant" monitoring by the Independent Election Monitoring Committee and stepped-up private human rights monitoring in East Timor.

Introducing the report, Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck told reporters in Indonesia "restrictions continued on freedom of association and worker rights and on allowing the people a real voice in the choice of their leaders."

The report said: "Despite a surface adherence to democratic forms, the Indonesian political system remains strongly authoritarian." It had prevented a real challenge from the opposition in last May's parliamentary elections, it said.

The report said Indonesia's judiciary was "effectively subordinated to the executive and the military and suffers from corruption."

Indonesia has been a close ally of the United States since the late-1960s but ties have frayed since the end of the Cold War, especially after a shooting in East Timor in 1991.

"Pervasive corruption remains a problem," the report continued.

"The authorities maintained their tight grip on the political process, and in the May parliamentary election, as in the previous five held since 1971, denied citizens the ability to change their government democratically."

The political structure instead assured the ruling Golkar party of its largest-ever victory, while ousted opposition leader Megawati Soekarnoputri and her supporters were barred from contesting the polls.

"The election and campaign were marred by credible allegations of fraud, as well as by sporadic yet significant violence between parties, including the government-sponsored Golkar organization," it said.

Indonesia is the world's largest Moslem-populated nation with over 90 percent of its 202.5 million people following Islam.

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