Knut Asplund This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. [Acheh-Eye.Org]

   www.acheh-eye.org/a-eye_news_f - [Cached]

   Published on: 12/4/2005   Last Visited: 12/12/2005

   But then, Knut Asplund is no ordinary human rights campaigner and the Norwegian Center for Human Rights, of which he is an associate, is not one of those run-of-the-mill NGOs that is vocal, if not loud, in denouncing Indonesia's human rights record.
   ...
   Here, from his office opposite the University of Oslo, Asplund runs the Indonesian program with Christian Ranheim and Christina Kloster.
   ...
   Asplund and his team are not complete strangers to Indonesian human rights or legal circles as visits to the country and contact with people who matter have been par for the course in their work.
   
   Both articulate speakers of Bahasa Indonesia, the language skills of Asplund and Kloster testify to their deep involvement with this country.
   ...
   Asplund and his team are also helping to draft a textbook on human rights to be used in teaching undergraduates at law schools in the country.
   ...
   "Norway is trying to find its place in international diplomacy, a niche," Asplund explains.
   ...
   Asplund, an anthropologist by training, applied for the job to lead the Indonesian program because of his connection with Indonesia. He wrote his master's degree thesis in 1995 on the relation between Islam and traditional beliefs in the Riau archipelago in 1995.
   
   Hailing from a small village, as he put it "above the Arctic Circle", he returned to Indonesia in 1999 as a member of the independent observer for the East Timor ballot. He and Ranheim were among the last to leave East Timor before violence erupted.
   
   That unfortunate episode remains an unresolved issue as far as the United Nations is concerned, particularly in the absence of anyone in the Indonesian Military being made accountable for the atrocities that took place in the wake of the UN-sponsored ballot.
   
   "It's hard to disagree with the United Nations," Asplund says.
   
   But he acknowledges that there has been a change of attitude on the part of Indonesia in recent years.
   
   "There is a genuine effort to solve human rights problems," he adds.
   
   He underlines specifically the ratification of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by the Indonesian government this year as milestones for human rights in Indonesia.
   
   "It's a statement of commitment," he said.