Mandela's letter sent to the wrong embassy<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The mystery over the snail's pace of South
\nAfrican President Nelson Mandela's letter to President Soeharto
\nwas solved yesterday when it was revealed the letter had been
\nsent to the Portuguese embassy instead of the Indonesian embassy
\nin Pretoria.<\/p>\n
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas revealed the snafu had
\nbeen created by South African officials.<\/p>\n
\"It should have been delivered to the Indonesian Embassy in
\nPretoria. But according to the embassy report it was mistakenly
\nsent by South African presidential officials to the Portuguese
\nembassy,\" Alatas was quoted by Antara as saying from Phnom Penh
\nlate Saturday evening.<\/p>\n
Early last week Mandela said that he had sent a letter to
\nSoeharto urging the release of jailed East Timorese rebel leader
\nJose Alexandre \"Xanana\" Gusmao.<\/p>\n
But the letter was only received Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\"It's rather strange and for such an error and mistake the
\nSouth African government has apologized to the Indonesian side,
\nfrom the president to the foreign minister to their ambassador in
\nJakarta,\" Alatas remarked.<\/p>\n
Alatas was in Phnom Penh leading an Association of Southeast
\nAsian Nations mission to meet with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen.<\/p>\n
Alatas said he does not blame the South African side since it
\nwas probably delivered by a low ranking officer. But he wondered,
\nwhy Portugal did not return the letter.<\/p>\n
\"I really question Portugal's morality. Withholding a letter
\nwhich was clearly not addressed to them is a sordid act,
\nespecially then using that letter for unsavory purposes,\" he
\ncharged.<\/p>\n
The error also explains the media leak over the call to
\nrelease Xanana, Antara said.<\/p>\n
The South African side only realized that the letter had been
\nmissent after Alatas called his counterpart, A. Nzo, who
\nexpressed surprise that it had not been delivered. According to
\nNzo the letter was sent immediately after Mandela returned from
\nhis state visit to Indonesia last month.<\/p>\n
During the Mandela met Xanana in Jakarta July 15. The Timorese
\nrebel is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence.<\/p>\n
Commenting on the call to release Xanana, Alatas said Mandela
\nhad a right to make his view known, but Indonesia had its own
\nposition, stressing that Xanana was jailed in accordance with the
\ndue process of the law.<\/p>\n
\"Something which has been decided by legal process cannot be
\nchanged just like that,\" Alatas remarked. \"So we have our own
\nview, but let's just wait and see what the official response is
\nfrom President Soeharto.\"<\/p>\n
Comments<\/p>\n
National Commission on Human Rights member Muladi echoed the
\ngovernment's stance, saying that giving Xanana a pardon would not
\nsolve the East Timor problem.<\/p>\n
\"Thorough deliberations are needed before releasing Xanana,
\nnot just a letter from Mandela,\" Muladi told The Jakarta Post in
\nSemarang, Central Java yesterday.<\/p>\n
\"Xanana and his gang possessed weapons and many East Timorese
\nfell victim to them. He (Xanana) is serving his sentence for
\ncrimes he committed and not political reasons,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Muladi speculated that human rights reasons might have
\nmotivated Mandela to make the request. \"I fully understood this,
\nbecause he (Mandela) spent a long time behind bars,\" he said.<\/p>\n
In Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara, former minister of finance and
\nIndonesian ambassador to Portugal, Frans Seda, called on the
\ngovernment to look for new initiatives to reach \"a quick and
\nthorough settlement of East Timor dispute\".<\/p>\n
\"The government always says the problem was resolved after the
\n1976 integration of East Timor into Indonesia but falls short of
\nanswering alleged human rights violations in the former
\nPortuguese colony,\" Seda told the Post Saturday.<\/p>\n
He compared the Indonesian government's efforts in East Timor
\nwith those in West Irian in the 1960s. \"It took us 12 years to
\nintegrate Irian Jaya into our country. But the East Timor case
\nhas yet to see a sign of settlement after 21 years,\" he said.
\n(har\/yac\/amd\/mds)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/mandelas-letter-sent-to-the-wrong-embassy-1447893297",
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