DEMARCHE TO INDONESIA ON BELARUS CANDIDACY FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L JAKARTA 001330 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MTS, IO/SHS, DRL/MLGA, AND EUR/PGI E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2017 TAGS: PHUM PREL UNHRC BO BK ID SUBJECT: DEMARCHE TO INDONESIA ON BELARUS CANDIDACY FOR UNHRC REF: A. STATE 58054 (UNHRC CANDIDACY OF BELARUS) ¶B. STATE 64169 (BOSNIA ANNOUNCES) Classified By: John A. Heffern, Charge d'affaires. Reasons: 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (C) Summary. Indonesia and Belarus have agreed to vote for each other in the first round of the May 17 UN Human Rights Council elections, according to a well-placed Department of Foreign Affairs contact. The GOI has already instructed its Mission in New York accordingly, despite demarches from the U.S., UK, France, and Canada. Indonesia concedes that Belarus is a bad candidate, but its own drive for membership in high-profile UN bodies such as the Security Council and Human Rights Council will determine its vote in the first round. Indonesia hopes Bosnia's entry into the UNHRC race will force the vote into a second round, thus enabling the GOI to save face by shifting its vote, assuming Belarus does not survive the first round. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) We met May 11 with Suryana Sastradiredja, Deputy Director for Multilateral Issues in the Indonesian Department of Foreign Affairs' Directorate of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, to urge that Indonesia not vote for Belarus in the upcoming May 17 elections to the UN Human Rights Council (reftels). ¶3. (C) Suryana said he was working to secure Indonesia's own reelection to the Human Rights Council, and expressed annoyance that Indonesia had only been elected to a one-year term last year. Pressed for GOI plans, Suryana admitted that the GOI and Belarus had agreed to vote for each other in their bids for UNHRC membership. He said that the French, British, and Canadian embassies had demarched the Department's Secretary General (Deputy Secretary equivalent) on the issue, but that the GOI had already instructed its UNGA delegation as part of a strategy to secure Indonesia's UNHRC election. When we advised Suryana that Bosnia had announced its candidacy, he said that the GOI had not been aware of this, but that this "made things easier" for Indonesia. He said that there would probably not be a new instruction to the Indonesian delegation, but hoped that Belarus would not survive a first round of voting, and that Indonesia could then shift its support to a more acceptable candidate in later rounds. ¶4. (C) Comment. Indonesia's vote on this issue will be dictated entirely by its desire to remain on the Council. It will likely not be swayed by arguments concerning the deficiencies of Belarus' human rights record. For Indonesia, membership in high-profile international bodies is central to its self-image. End comment. HEFFERN