Human Rights Top U.S. Agenda in Indonesia

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher arrived here Monday for four days of meetings focused on Pacific Rim security and trade, with human rights in Myanmar and Indonesia the initial items on his agenda.

Discussions about the repressive military regime in Myanmar dominated a working dinner Monday night attended by foreign ministers of the seven-member Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations and that group’s larger Regional Forum, a senior U.S. official said.

Christopher told his colleagues that the United States wants the military junta in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to release political prisoners and talk seriously with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, that nation’s once-detained Nobel peace laureate.

He urged that the other countries here also push Myanmar on such issues, the official said. Christopher added that “if the situation were to deteriorate, the United States would have to take stronger actions,” the official said.

But ASEAN members, who in recent days had stressed that they wish to welcome Myanmar into their group rather than to isolate it, made clear that they “shared the same objective but preferred a different approach,” the official said.

The seven members are: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Today, Christopher turned his attention to Indonesia at a breakfast with the Indonesian Human Rights Commission, which investigates alleged rights abuses.

Christopher said before the breakfast that the United States has “a deep interest” in encouraging “political pluralism” in Indonesia. As economic growth takes place here, how the government responds to demands for free speech and a more open political system “will have important implications” for the future of Indonesia and the entire region, he said.

That session and the meeting of ASEAN’s Regional Forum--which will expand to 21 members with the addition today of India and Myanmar--are occurring even as a confrontation grows between Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia’s top opposition leader, and the government.

Supporters of Megawati--the daughter of the late President Sukarno, who helped lead Indonesia to independence in 1945--remained in control of the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party.

Megawati, 49, was ousted last month as party chairwoman at a special convention strongly influenced by the government. She insists that session was illegal and that she still leads the party.

Feisal Tanjung, Indonesia’s armed forces commander, was quoted Monday as declaring that the almost daily rallies at party headquarters were subversive and would be banned. But Megawati called a news conference Monday, heavily attended by international journalists here to cover the ASEAN sessions, and said the protests would continue.

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The official Antara news agency quoted Tanjung as claiming that the rallies by Megawati’s supporters were “intended to topple the government” and saying the military would help Surjadi, the government-backed party leader, take control of party headquarters.

As for a session Wednesday with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, Christopher told reporters that he hopes to use it “to establish a framework for visits that will take place, assuming there is another Clinton administration.” This includes a possible plan for Vice President Al Gore to visit China, he said.