Alatas ejects Evan's remark on ambassador
Alatas ejects Evan's remark on ambassador
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali
Alatas yesterday discarded his Australian counterpart's calls for
an Indonesian ambassador not linked to East Timor as a personal
opinion superfluous to Jakarta's prerogative to select a
candidate.
"That's his own opinion," Alatas told journalists yesterday
when asked to comment on Gareth Evans' desire that Indonesia's
next ambassador to Australia have a clean record in regard to
East Timor.
"He is free to have such an opinion, but I believe that the
decision to select an ambassadorial nominee is up to the country
which makes the appointment," Alatas asserted.
Evans was reported earlier to have said that Australia would
prefer "someone who hasn't got any kind of track record of either
involvement in or support for actions in East Timor or elsewhere
that are obviously distasteful."
Evans was also quoted as saying that a civilian would be
preferable for the post.
Indonesia withdrew the nomination of retired Army lieutenant
general H.B.L. Mantiri in June over a public protest in Australia
relating to remarks he made about the 1991 incident in Dili, East
Timor. In the incident, security forces killed 50 demonstrators.
Despite having accepted Mantiri's nomination, Evans later
demanded he apologize.
Jakarta refused the request and later announced that it was
withdrawing Mantiri's nomination and would leave the post in
Canberra vacated for an indefinite period.
"Those are his owns expectations, not any sort of formal
restrictions," Alatas said when pressed whether Evans' comments
would influence Jakarta's selection.
Alatas spoke at his office after receiving a number of
documents from historian Des Alwi to help the foreign ministry's
efforts to compile a history of Indonesian diplomacy.
The minister also confirmed that an Indonesian flag was burned
by a group of demonstrators in Melbourne last week, setting
straight earlier confusion whether such an incident took place.
"After the Australian government checked again, they admitted
an incident where a flag was burned in Melbourne," he said.
Kangaroo 95
An Indonesian flag was burned by demonstrators protesting
Indonesia's participation in the Kangaroo 95 military exercise
which began last week.
The foreign ministry's director of information Irawan Abidin
stated that Gareth Evans confirmed the incident during a meeting
with Alatas in Brunei and said that Indonesia has issued a formal
protest through its embassy in Canberra.
Alatas would not say whether Indonesia would follow up the
protest by summoning Australian ambassador Alan Taylor, but
hinted that the possibility remained open.
"We could protest there (Canberra) or protest here," he said,
adding that he still needed time to assess the situation after
just returning from the week long meeting of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei.
Despite Alatas' statement, Armed Forces spokesperson Brig.
Gen. Soewarno Adiwidjojo continued to insist that the flag
burning incident never occurred.
"There was only a reading of a petition by a few anti-
Indonesian groups," he said as quoted by Antara yesterday.
Soewarno said he based his assessment on reports from
Indonesia's military attache in Canberra and sources in
Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. (mds)