INDONESIAN JET SALE TO PROCEED DESPITE CONGRESSIONAL CONCERNS.

Byline: Associated Press 

The Clinton administration plans to go ahead with a sale of nine F-16 fighter jets to Indonesia despite congressional objections on grounds of alleged human rights abuses in that country.

A top State Department official disclosed the sale in little-noticed testimony at a Senate hearing a few weeks before questions surfaced about potential improper influence by an Indonesian banking family whose members and associates have given heavily to Democratic candidates.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., questioned whether the sale should be postponed. He told reporters Thursday he thinks the administration ``should suspend any activities in regard to Indonesia until there's time for hearings'' in Congress about the Indonesian contributions.

Gingrich said he expects several committees to investigate after Congress returns in January.

Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord told a Senate panel last month of administration plans to notify Congress formally in January of its intention to proceed with the sale. Lord expressed concern about Indonesia's human rights record but said the administration believes the jet sale was in the interest of the United States because it would bolster stability in East Asia.

State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Young said the U.S. policy ``is to make available to Indonesia military equipment that will support legitimate external defense needs.'' Without improvement in Indonesia's human rights record, she said, the administration would disapprove sales of small arms, crowd-control equipment or other items that could be used ``to suppress legitimate dissent.'' She would not comment further.

The United States has objected in the past to Indonesia's treatment of workers, including use of the military to settle labor disputes, and to human rights abuses in the territory of East Timor. Human rights groups say Indonesian troops have tortured, beaten and killed civilians to stifle separatist activities in the annexed former Portuguese colony.

In early September, Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, told State Department officials he would introduce a resolution of disapproval if the sale were proposed officially, a committee aide said. As a result, the officials did not notify Congress of the sale, the aide said, adding that he was surprised to hear Lord's statement a few weeks later.

Gilman was not available for comment Thursday. In a letter Tuesday, he asked the Commerce Department's inspector general to investigate a series of securities transactions by John Huang, a Democratic fund-raiser, while he held a high-ranking job at the department.

Huang, who has past ties to the Riady banking family of Indonesia, has raised an estimated $4 million to $5 million from Asian-Americans for Democratic coffers this year - including $250,000 that had to be returned because it violated campaign finance laws.

Gilman expressed concern in his letter that Huang's position as deputy assistant secretary in the trade area ``may have allowed him an unfair advantage'' in a series of 1995 transactions involving ``a number of firms with extensive international operations.''