Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08JAKARTA55
2008-01-09 11:02:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Jakarta
Cable title:  

KEEPING INDONESIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES IN

Tags:  PREL PHUM ID 
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VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHJA #0055 0091102
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 091102Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7600
C O N F I D E N T I A L JAKARTA 000055 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

TO ASSISTANT SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY FROM AMBASSADOR HUME

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/09/2018
TAGS: PREL PHUM ID
SUBJECT: KEEPING INDONESIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES IN
PERSPECTIVE

Classified By: Ambassador Cameron R. Hume, reasons 1.4 (b,d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L JAKARTA 000055

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

TO ASSISTANT SECRETARY DOBRIANSKY FROM AMBASSADOR HUME

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/09/2018
TAGS: PREL PHUM ID
SUBJECT: KEEPING INDONESIA'S HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES IN
PERSPECTIVE

Classified By: Ambassador Cameron R. Hume, reasons 1.4 (b,d).


1. (C) I would like to appeal for your support in finalizing
the 2007 Indonesia Country Report on Human Rights Practices.
Indonesia has changed dramatically in the last ten years and
continues to consolidate these changes. The report needs to
include language in the introduction that recognizes this
democratic transformation in order to provide context for
continuing human rights problems. Because the transition has
been so peaceful -- a revolution by consensus, as it were --
we may fail to grasp how much change has occurred. In this
vein, to ensure a balanced overall perspective, it is fair
and appropriate to cite the 2007 Freedom House Report on
Indonesia, identifying it as the only country in Southeast
Asia to earn the "free" rating.


2. (C) The Embassy is sending to DRL a proposed revised text
for the introduction which, I believe, is an accurate and
fair description of where Indonesia stands today. Such an
assessment of continuing problems hinges on where we set an
appropriate threshold of significance. One or two incidents
per year do not spell a national trend. The list of human
rights problems that appears in the introduction should focus
only on the truly significant ones.


3. (C) Finally, there is the question of accountability for
past abuses. This involves the more fundamental issue of the
extent to which a new regime, and the society that underpins
it, should be held accountable for the deeds of the regime
that preceded it. In Indonesia's case, the post-Suharto
change was dramatic and immediate, and the new Indonesia has
worked hard to distance itself from that past. Democratic
Indonesia is far from perfect, but we need to judge it by its
own actions and ideals and not by its ability to rectify a
past which it has deliberately left behind. The inability to
deal jurisprudentially with that past can and should be
mentioned in the report as a contextual, political factor,
but not as a human rights abuse of contemporary Indonesia.

HUME