Indonesian activists on Sunday criticized the US government for praising Indones

ia’s progress on human rights, saying that the barometer used for the report could
be misleading.
“I’m a bit concerned with the diplomatic statements made by some countries regarding
Indonesia’s progress on human rights, because it could give people the wrong perc
eption about what’s really happening,” Haris Azhar, coordinator of the Commission fo
r Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), told the Jakarta Globe.
As in previous editions, the US State Department’s annual survey on human rights p
ointed to concerns in Indonesia, this year including accounts of unlawful killin
gs in violence-torn Papua along with violations of freedom of religion.
But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while presenting on Friday the mammot
h, 7,000-page global report, pointed to Indonesia as a success story.
“Indonesia boasts a vibrant free media and a flourishing civil society at the same
time as it faces up to challenges in preventing abuses by its security forces a
nd acting against religious intolerance,” she was quoted by foreign wire agencies
as saying.
The survey covers the period before Islamic fanatics brutally killed three membe
rs of the Ahmadiyah sect in early February, raising questions over Indonesia’s com
mitment to safeguard minority rights.
The concern over Papua is primarily a reference to the torture of two civilians
there last year by soldiers. They were subsequently court-martialed in January b
ut given sentences of less than a year, a punishment slammed by the influential
group Human Rights Watch as far too lenient to send a message that abuse was una
cceptable.
Kontras’s Haris said both indicators presented by the US government — that Indonesia
has been progressing in terms of media independence and better access for civil
societies to voice their concern — were also incorrect.
“Freedom of journalism? I don’t think so. It’s still fresh in our minds that several j
ournalists have been brutally attacked because of their reporting, some were eve
n murdered,” he said.
“And in terms of flourishing civil societies, it’s true, non-government organization
s are mushrooming, but what’s the point if human rights defenders and anticorrupti
on activists are assaulted?” he added.
According to Kontras, in 2010 alone more than 100 human rights activists here we
re victimized and many of the perpetrators remain free.
And according to Reporters Without Borders, when it comes to press freedom, Indo
nesia ranks very low, much worse than it did several years ago when Abdurrahman “G
us Dur” Wahid was the president.
The US report in some ways echoes progress noted by New York-based Human Rights
Watch in its own annual review of human rights practices around the globe, relea
sed in January. Then it noted that while serious human rights concerns remained,
Indonesia had over the past 12 years made great strides in becoming a stable, d
emocratic country with a strong civil society and independent media.
But Andreas Harsono, from Human Rights Watch, said it was perplexing that the US
government would compliment Indonesia’s progress on rights.
“It’s a big joke,” he said. “Attacks against Ahmadiyah have been happening since 2008, a
fter the joint ministerial decree was issued, and attacks against churches durin
g SBY’s six-year tenure are even more prevalent than during the five decades in wh
ich Sukarno and Suharto ruled,” he said.
Additional reporting by AP, AFP