Aussie MPs favor more cooperation

JAKARTA (JP): Australia's apparent ambivalence continued here yesterday as visiting Members of Parliament (MP) demonstrated their affection for Indonesia despite a tough new line taken by Australia's ruling Labor Party on the issue of East Timor.

After meeting with President Soeharto at Bina Graha Office yesterday, a visiting delegation of four Australian parliamentarians stressed the importance of cooperation through commercial ties and the fostering of regional stability and security.

They asserted Australia's commitment to help develop Indonesia's eastern region, including East Timor.

Nevertheless they maintained that human rights would remain a feature in talks between the two countries.

"This (human rights) issue is part of a dialog between Indonesia and Australia. We will discuss the issue more seriously," Martyn Evans of the Labor Party said.

Evans, along with fellow member Gayan O'Conner, and two liberals, Baden Teague and Peter Slipper, will leave for a two- day stay in East Timor tomorrow.

Evans said the parliamentary delegation wanted to see for themselves the true situation in East Timor and to inspect the various Australian sponsored development projects going on there.

Among the projects currently underway are a clean water project and a power plant.

A former Portuguese colony, East Timor was integrated into Indonesia in 1976. Though it now exists as an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia, a group of countries led by Portugal continue to protest the integration.

Relations between Indonesia and Australia have blossomed since Prime Minister Paul Keating took office three years ago.

Despite criticism from groups protesting Indonesia's integration of East Timor, Keating has stressed Indonesia's importance as Australia's closest neighbor by making three visits here thus far.

The flourishing state of relations was accentuated further when, last Wednesday, Vice President Try Sutrisno became the highest ranking Indonesian official to go "down under" in nearly two decades.

However, less than a week after Try's visit, the ruling Labor Party, during their biannual conference in Hobart, Tasmania, yielded a document expressing concern over human rights abuses in East Timor.

The document, unanimously adopted on Monday as party policy, also calls for leniency for jailed East Timorese separatist leader Xanana Gusmao.

The critical remarks on Indonesia's domestic politics came as a slap in the face because only days earlier in Canberra Try had called on both nations to refrain from interfering in each other's domestic politics.

Documents

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans, who attended the conference on Monday, fully endorsed the document, saying it is aimed at ending human rights abuses, which he said are "a part and parcel of the situation there".

"More particularly (it calls for) an effort on the ground to draw down that repressive military presence (in East Timor)," he said repeating the statement he made during the Indonesia- Australia Ministerial Forum meeting last month.

Liberal MP Baden Teague revealed that during yesterday's meeting, Soeharto highlighted the significance of understanding the differing approaches towards human rights in various countries.

Teague said the president explained to the MPs that Indonesia has its own distinct way of implementing human rights for its people.

When questioned on the adverse publicity that Indonesia gets in the Australian press, Evans said such a case may sometimes occur but it will not affect the overall framework of good relations between the two countries.

Separately yesterday, Try Sutrisno also met with Soeharto to report on his recent visit to Australia.

Saying that his trip had reaffirmed the two countries' commitments to fostering stronger ties, Try acknowledged there were still minor barriers in bilateral ties, which would not harm the overall amiable relations. (mds)