White House defends Indonesian policy

White House defends Indonesian policy

WASHINGTON (Agencies): The White House denied on Friday that contributions from Indonesians to President Bill Clinton's campaign had influenced U.S. policy towards Indonesia and muffled criticism of human rights abuses there, AFP reported.

"This administration has pressed the issue of human rights specifically with respect to the government of Indonesia and East Timor harder than the last two administrations," White House spokesman Michael McCurry said.

Opposition Republicans charged that the Clinton administration was allowing foreign governments to gain influence on decision- making by allowing the contributions.

There is ample evidence that, if anything, we have been tougher on issues related to human rights and worker rights than the administrations of George Bush and Ronald Reagan," McCurry said.

A controversy has erupted over donations from wealthy Indonesians associated with the Lippo Group, a huge Indonesian conglomerate.

House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich has blasted what he calls an unprecedented level of foreign influence in the White House.

But the White House spokesman flatly denied that charge and argued that the contributions came from "people who are residing legally in the United States (or) of foreign ethnic heritage (who) are allowed to participate."

"Foreign governments are not allowed to participate in the U.S. political process, and they do not ... have not affected the conduct of foreign policy in this administration," McCurry said.

Republicans say campaign contributions called into question a variety of government actions, including U.S. policy toward East Timor and a proposed sale of F-16 fighter jets to Indonesia.

But Clinton bowed to pressure on Friday to open an investigation into these Asian contributions, Reuters said.

Speaking at the White House, Clinton said his Chief of Staff Leon Panetta had already ordered the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to investigate a number of allegations concerning millions of dollars in funding for the party.

"Mr. Panetta has asked the DNC to review all the contributions to make sure they were appropriate," Clinton told journalists as he opened a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

The DNC has also removed finance vice chairman John Huang from fund-raising duties and asked the Federal Election Commission to investigate questions about contributions Huang helped solicit, the Washington Post reported in Saturday editions.

DNC press secretary Amy Weiss Tobe said Huang had stopped "active fund-raising" and was devoting his full-time attention to addressing questions about whether some donations were proper, the paper reported.

Huang had been an employee of a Lippo unit in the United States before he was recruited into the DNC.

She said the DNC believed an FEC investigation "would be the best and fairest approach to take."

The DNC last month returned a $250,000 contribution handled by Huang after determining it came from a foreign company, not its U.S. subsidiary. Republicans are also calling on the party to return $450,000 in contributions from an Indonesian couple, as well as $140,000 raised at a Buddhist temple in California.

The DNC on Friday said it would reimburse the temple $15,000 for the use of its facilities.