[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11193-S11194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RECENT EVENTS IN INDONESIA

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, like many Senators I have been 
concerned about human rights in Indonesia and East Timor for many 
years. I was therefore pleased when the Clinton administration 
indicated on July 25 that it had added armored personnel carriers to 
the list of military equipment

[[Page S11194]]

it will not sell to Indonesia until there is significant improvement in 
respect for human rights. The administration's policy already 
prohibited the sale of small arms and crowd control equipment.
  Two days after the United States reaffirmed and expanded its policy, 
an Indonesian paramilitary group stormed and destroyed the headquarters 
of the Indonesian Democratic Party to eject supporters of the leading 
opposition leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri. Party members had occupied 
the building to protest the forced replacement of Ms. Megawati as party 
chair in June. The breakup of the protest sparked days of rioting in 
which at least 5 people were killed, 149 were injured, and dozens 
disappeared.
  In the months after the riot, the Suharto government has cracked down 
on opposition groups, arresting more than 200 members of labor, human 
rights, and political organizations. Some individuals have reportedly 
been tortured in detention.
  Under pressure from Congress, the administration agreed to delay the 
sale of F-16 fighter jets to Indonesia in response to the crackdown. In 
a letter I wrote urging the administration not to proceed with this 
sale, I noted that providing military equipment to a government that 
engages in a pattern of human rights violations is contrary to section 
502(B) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and that the Indonesian 
Government clearly fits this description. I urged the administration 
not to proceed with the sale until the Indonesian Government ``provides 
a full accounting of the individuals who have been detained and the 
charges against them, assurances that they are not being subjected to 
mistreatment and that they have access to lawyers and their families, 
and that people detained for their political views have been 
released.''
  I was therefore disturbed to learn weeks later that administration 
officials, having delayed the sale of F-16's on account of the human 
rights situation, were saying publicly that the sale would proceed ``as 
early as January.'' This undercut an opportunity to send a strong 
signal to a regime that has quashed political dissent consistently and 
whose actions since July reveal a disregard for the principals of 
democracy that the United States seeks to promote around the world. The 
administration should make clear, both privately and publicly, that 
this sale will not proceed until the Indonesian Government complies 
with international human rights standards.
  Indeed, I urge the administration to condemn all human rights 
violations in Indonesia. Abuses continue to occur throughout the 
country and in East Timor. On November 12, East Timorese will honor the 
victims of the 1991 massacre of more than 200 people by Indonesian 
troops at Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, East Timor. A long-standing 
pattern of violations by the Indonesian military persists on that 
island, and the anniversary of the massacre at Santa Cruz presents an 
opportunity for the United States to urge the Indonesian Government to 
withdraw its troops from East Timor.
  To that end, I urge the administration to actively support the 
efforts of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo to promote dialog and bring peace 
to East Timor, and to support the United Nations talks on East Timor's 
future.
  Mr. President, the senior Senator from Rhode Island, Senator Pell, 
who has been a long-standing champion of human rights in East Timor, 
visited that island in May and issued a report of his trip. In that 
report, he describes a meeting with clergy in East Timor, who told him 
about some of the abuses they had witnessed. I ask that these excerpts 
from his report be printed in the Record.
  The excerpts follow:

   Excerpts of Trip Report of Senator Claiborne Pell on His Visit to 
               Indonesia and East Timor in May-June 1996

       I had hoped to meet with the Bishop of East Timor, Msgr. 
     Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. Bishop Belo is widely admired for 
     his forthright objections to Indonesian human rights abuses 
     and is a vital leader of his people. Regrettably, he was away 
     from East Timor during my visit, though we were able to talk 
     by phone.
       I was able to meet with eleven priests from a variety of 
     East Timorese parishes in what was by far the most fruitful 
     and dramatic meeting of my trip . . . these priests gradually 
     and fearlessly opened up to me and told me what they had seen 
     and heard in their parishes over the last 20 years.
       They spoke of military harassment of the Church that varies 
     from obstructing their ability to meet with their 
     parishioners to trying to create mistrust among the people of 
     the Church . . .
       None of the priests had been present at the 1991 massacre 
     but one told us, with great emotion, of his experiences, that 
     day and in the months afterwards. His home is near the Santa 
     Cruz cemetery where the massacre occurred. He had heard the 
     shots that morning, but thought at first they were the 
     rumblings of a storm. When he went out later, he heard from 
     people what had happened and he went to the cemetery and 
     tried to give last rites to those who were dying or were 
     dead. The military would not let him approach and tried to 
     make him leave. He stayed anyway and soon saw three large 
     military trucks approach and be loaded with corpses. Then he 
     saw other trucks come that were filled with water and he 
     watched them spray the blood off the ground where the 
     killings had taken place.
       The wounded were all taken to military hospitals, he said. 
     He then proceeded, without prompting, to confirm the stories 
     I had read and been told earlier, that no one was allowed to 
     visit these wounded in the hospitals, not even the priests. 
     Again he was unable to give last rites to the dying. He 
     estimated that in the month following the massacre as many 
     people died in the hospitals, either from poor treatment or 
     from torture, as had been killed in the cemetery. He told of 
     hearing eyewitness accounts of mass graves holding as many as 
     100 corpses in one pit. He said the month following the 
     massacre came to be known as ``The Second Massacre.'' . . . 
     Emotions around the room continued to rise, both for those 
     telling the stories and those of us listening to them. I was 
     struck by the knowledge that 5 years previously this group 
     would have risked the sudden intrusion of armed officials, as 
     the priests systematically contradicted everything the 
     Indonesian government officials in Jakarta and Dili had said 
     . . .

  Mr. President, we owe Senator Pell our gratitude for his defense of 
human rights in East Timor. I want to again urge the administration to 
use its influence with the Suharto government to permit the supporters 
of democracy to associate and speak freely, and to stop the violations 
of human rights.

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