Clinton Urges Indonesia to Improve Rights : Asia: But President, in meeting with Suharto, sets no conditions that could disrupt ties.

President Clinton on Wednesday pressed Indonesia to clean up its human rights record, but without setting deadlines or demanding remedies that could disrupt ties with the world’s fourth-largest country.

Fresh from a summit with leaders of 17 Pacific Rim nations, Clinton said that his Administration will pursue improved human rights “with conviction and without apology.” But while Clinton and his lieutenants urged better treatment of ethnic minorities, journalists and labor activists, they largely left it to the Indonesians to find their way to such a goal.

The softer approach appeared to reflect the Administration’s determination to assign a high priority to trade deals while avoiding costly confrontations over human rights. Last May, the Administration decided to drop linkage between trade benefits and human rights in its relations with China.

Under renewed pressure from advocacy groups and Congress, Clinton laid out his human rights goals in a meeting with Indonesian President Suharto at his Merdeka Palace, then talked to a group of U.S. and Asian business people.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, meanwhile, met with a human rights commission appointed by the Indonesian government, while other U.S. officials held a partly boycotted meeting with local human rights groups.

Human rights have cast a shadow over the summit because of violent demonstrations in the disputed territory of East Timor and a five-day sit-in by Timorese students at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta.

Clinton raised the Timor issue with his Indonesian hosts but failed to win any agreements to end the embassy protest.

A former Portuguese colony 1,200 miles east of Jakarta, East Timor was annexed by Indonesia in the 1970s and has been the site of frequent clashes between the predominantly Catholic population and Indonesian troops, who are mainly Muslim.

Clinton’s state visit with Suharto included a “rather lengthy” discussion of human rights and the East Timor conflict, aides said. But rather than prod the Indonesian leader, Clinton simply told him that he welcomed the recent talks between the Indonesians and Timorese separatists in New York.

Clinton also raised the issue of labor rights with Suharto, but aides said he did not specifically mention last week’s jailing of Muchtar Pakpahan, the leader of Indonesia’s largest independent trade union, for three years on charges of inciting unrest.

The Clinton Administration has suspended an investigation into Indonesia’s labor practices that will determine whether the country can continue to receive trade benefits known as the General System of Preferences. Human rights groups had pressed Clinton to resume the investigation, but he took no action.

But Clinton also praised the Indonesian leader for his efforts on behalf of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. On Tuesday, the group pledged to remove all trade barriers among APEC countries by the year 2020.

Clinton maintained that his human rights concerns need not interfere with U.S. efforts to strengthen economic ties to the region.

“Even though we will continue to promote human rights with conviction and without apology, we reject the notion that increasing economic ties in trade and partnerships undermine our human rights agenda,” Clinton told a group of high-ranking U.S. and Asian business people.

Christopher, describing Clinton’s views to reporters, said that “the relationship between the United States and Indonesia can never reach its highest levels if the people of the United States don’t have confidence that there is an effort here to respect the rights of all the citizens.”

Christopher’s deputy, Winston Lord, held an informal meeting with a group of local human rights activists, but the Indonesian Legal Aid Society and a number of other rights groups boycotted the meeting because they said it did not appear to be a serious effort.

“Everyone was in a hurry, and there did not seem to be any point,” said Goenawan Muhammad, the former editor of the best-selling Tempo magazine, which was ordered closed by the government for printing articles critical of the Suharto government.

Meanwhile, the Administration’s foremost interest in the trip--trade--was also in evidence, as Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown witnessed the signing of a series of contracts, worth about $40 billion, between U.S. and Asian firms. Among them was a $35-billion deal between an Exxon Corp. affiliate and Indonesia’s national oil company to extract liquid natural gas from the South China Sea. Brown helped put the deal together.

Clinton was to arrive in Hawaii today for three days of relaxation before returning to Washington on Sunday.