Russ Feingold: “The climate described in the article clearly is not one that supports freedom of expression, freedom of the press or…”

“The climate described in the article clearly is not one that supports freedom of expression, freedom of the press or freedom of association. The events of July 27 underscore the Government's intention to foster a repressive climate in the months leading up to the 1997 parliamentary elections. As the New York Times declared in a recent editorial, ``This is no time to be selling high-performance warplanes to Indonesia.'' The administration says its policy is ``to make available to Indonesia military equipment that will support legitimate external defense needs.'' At the same time, the United States will not export or transfer to Indonesia small arms, crowd control equipment or armored personnel carriers until we have seen significant improvement in human rights in the country, particularly in East Timor. Mr. President, I am pleased that the Congress and the administration have worked together to develop a policy linking the sale of small arms to Indonesia to its human rights record. This policy evolved from an amendment that I offered to the foreign aid appropriations bill several years ago. But I believe that we are missing an important opportunity to apply pressure to the Indonesian regime by failing to impose comparable conditions on the F-16 sale.”