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Indonesia Human Rights and Foreign Policy
The luster of Suharto's Nonaligned Movement
chairmanship was
somewhat diminished by persistent questioning of
Indonesia's
human rights practices. The November 1991 Dili Massacre
reopened
the nagging problem of East Timor, forcing Suharto to
break off
his foreign tour
(see Local Government
, this ch.;
National Defense and Internal Security
, ch. 5). Indonesia's problem
in
East Timor was only one part of a human- and
political-rights
record that was repeatedly criticized by a number of human
rights
monitoring agencies such as Asia Watch, Amnesty
International,
and the International Commission of Jurists. Over the
years of
the New Order's life, the International Commission of
Jurists had
provided copious documentation of rights violations that
paralleled the congressionally mandated United States
Department
of State's Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices
around the world, including data on Indonesia. Indonesia
had the
unenviable distinction of being one of the twenty-two
nations
criticized by the 1992 meeting of the UN Human Rights
Commission.
The catalog of problem areas was lengthy. Indonesia's
violations ran the gamut from lack of respect for the
integrity
of the individual to torture and disappearance; lack of
respect
for civil liberties including freedom of speech, press,
and
assembly; lack of respect for political rights; racial,
religious, and other forms of discrimination; and
inadequate
labor rights. Of particular concern to the human rights
monitoring agencies was the use of the judicial system to
suppress political opposition.
Indonesia's reactions to external criticism of its
human
rights record ranged from militant intransigence to
reasoned
defense. ABRI chief Try Sutrisno reacted angrily to
foreign
expressions of concern over the human rights situation in
East
Timor. "This is an internal affair and there should be no
meddling," he said. "If anyone wants to talk about human
rights,
Indonesia has had them since time immemorial. That's why
you
should study Pancasila." Furthermore, he added, "We will
not
accept any foreign interference." Minister of Foreign
Affairs Ali
Alatas took a more centrist position. He placed the issue
in the
context of balancing individual rights with the rights of
a
society, and political rights and economic, social, and
cultural
rights. Alatas argued that certain characteristic problems
of
developing countries must be acknowledged in the
application of
human rights criteria. Moreover, Indonesia furiously
resisted the
linking of the rights issues to other areas of
international
relations, particularly economic relations. The human
rights
issue complicated the renegotiation of an ASEAN-European
Community treaty on economic cooperation because the
European
Community insisted on the inclusion of a "human rights
clause."
The issue of human rights and East Timor was placed on the
European Community's agenda by Portugal. In the European
Community and other international forums, Lisbon pressured
an
unresponsive Indonesia to allow a UN-supervised act of
selfdetermination in the province.
In March 1992, angered at Dutch prodding on human
rights,
Indonesia cut its aid relationship with the Netherlands
and
disbanded the twenty-four-year-old IGGI, the multinational
group
of lenders, which was chaired by the Dutch. A new group,
minus
the Dutch, called the Consultative Group on Indonesia
(CGI--see Glossary),
met in Paris rather than The Hague, after being
established under World Bank aegis to continue IGGI
functions.
Jakarta was forcing a choice: participation in a
liberalized
Indonesian economy or insistence on the priority of human
rights.
Also in March 1992, the DPR passed a new immigration
law that
was criticized by human rights groups. The law effectively
barred
from returning to Indonesia residents whom the government
decided
had been disloyal. Targets of the new law were seen as
elements
that ABRI would naturally want to ban: secessionist
movement
members and alleged communists.
Data as of November 1992
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