By Max Lane
Among the 5000 delegates gathered in Vienna to discuss human rights are non-government organisations (NGOs) lobbying governments to take more principled and concrete stands on human rights. Already the Asia-Pacific NGOs have had to issue statements condemning the speeches of Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans and Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas.
Evans actually came out against self-determination as a principle. No doubt with Australia's alliance with Indonesia against East Timor in mind, Evans stated in his speech that self-determination leads to "fragmentation and a source of threats to international peace and security".
"At a conference in which regional NGOs are focusing on issues such as East Timor, Bougainville, Sri Lanka, Kanaky and Tibet, such a statement increases scepticism about the extent of Australia's commitment to solving such conflicts", said Joy Balazo, a representative of the Uniting Church in Australia, in a statement issued by the Asia-Pacific NGOs.
Evans and Alatas were also in alliance over the need for public relations fakery on human rights. Alatas trumpeted in his speech the news that Indonesian President Suharto had announced the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission.
Alatas' speech was blasted as "empty rhetoric and lack[ing] credibility because it bore no resemblance to the situation in Indonesia" by Asia-Pacific NGO spokesperson Cecilia Jimenez.
The new Indonesian commission is to be headed by Ali Said, a retired general. Said made his name as a chief judge of military tribunals after Suharto's coup in 1965 and as minister for justice from 1973 to 1984. These were years of gross abuses of human rights, including the invasion of East Timor, several massacres of unarmed civilians by the military,
widespread torture and extra-judicial killings and political imprisonment. Nobody responsible for these abuses has ever been punished.
Jimenez dismissed claims by Alatas that the commission would be independent. "How can it be independent when it has been established by presidential decree and thus is not accountable to either parliament or the community?"
Gareth Evans, however, claimed to have a different view. He welcomed the establishment of the commission.
He also announced a grant of $300,000 to the UN Centre of Human Rights Voluntary Fund for the purpose of supporting and promoting national institutions — thereby possibly channelling money to the Indonesian state bureaucracy.
According to Jimenez, what is really needed from Indonesia is measures such as "ratification of the major international covenants, the outlawing of torture, withdrawal of its occupation forces from East Timor, the release of political prisoners, repeal of its anti-subversion law, upholding the right of NGOs and trade unions to organise and an independent judiciary".
Andre Frankovits, of Amnesty International Australia, also questioned Evans' decision to give money via the UN to such bodies. In a statement issued by the Asia-Pacific NGOs, he said that Indonesia has not even acceded to most of the international instruments to protect human rights and has been guilty of continuing human rights violations, culminating in the recent discredited trial of Xanana Gusmao.