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.