Alatas upset at Spring's Timor words

Alatas upset at Spring's Timor words

DUBLIN (AFP): Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas has accused his Irish counterpart of publicly attacking his country in a manner that was "almost like a declaration of war," according to press reports here.

Alatas said Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring had attacked Indonesia over its policy in the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, according to The Irish Times on Friday.

Alatas said he found the attack unacceptable and unprecedented in his many years as a diplomat and foreign minister.

The Indonesian minister was referring to an article Spring wrote in The Irish Times in July in which he accused Indonesia of human rights abuses in East Timor. In the article, Spring also called on Indonesia to release political prisoners.

Alatas and Spring discussed the article at the United Nations in New York on Monday, The Irish Times said, but the meeting ended abruptly when the Irish minister walked out.

Alatas told the paper it was unacceptable that his country should be made a "whipping boy" by Spring.

He said he asked Spring if he had ever been to Indonesia and when he received a negative answer, he told him that he (Alatas) would think twice before commenting on the conflict in Northern Ireland.

"I am not saying we are as pure as just-fallen snow," Alatas told the paper.

"We have perhaps a human rights problem in some remote parts of Indonesia. We are a large developing country. Which country is completely free of human rights abuses?" he asked, adding that the United States and European countries also abused human rights.