Australia has no strategic designs on E. Timor: Envoy

JAKARTA (JP): Australia said Thursday that it did not have strategic designs on the troubled East Timor, saying it already had enough problems controlling and administering its own country.

"We have neither the resources nor the ambition to expand our strategic reach," Australian Ambassador to Indonesia John McCarthy told a business luncheon organized by the Indonesian Executive Circle.

McCarthy statement came as anti-Australia sentiment has been on the rise here following that country's leading role in restoring security and order in the former Portuguese colony.

He said that Australia did not have a "hidden agenda" inimical to Indonesian interests.

"Those who argue that we seek a weak Indonesia are wrong. A strong and cohesive Indonesia has been a lynchpin of our strategic policy for three decades and that remains our objective," McCarthy said.

He denied the argument that Australia seemed to have elected to put interest of some 800,000 people in East Timor beyond the 210 million of Indonesia.

"You suggest to us that by taking the approach we have on East Timor we have foregone the capacity to live comfortably with Indonesia. I do not agree with that contention. Please also accept that had we stood aside from East Timor, we could not have lived with ourselves," added McCarthy.

He said that Australia and Indonesia are neighbors and "it is our destiny to remain so".

"Our difference over East Timor is serious, but please understand that we in Australia have no designs upon your integrity and that we have respect for your dignity," McCarthy said.

He also said that Australia's leadership of the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) derived from its "geographic placement".

"While many Indonesians to whom I have spoken dislike the concept of foreign troops in East Timor and have argued against Australia prominence, few have disagreed with the fact that Interfet had to happen."

McCarthy appealed to protesters, both Indonesians and Australians, to end attacking one another's missions and burning each other's flags.

"Nothing is achieved by these open expressions of hostility. It is in the interests of both our countries to cool things down," he said.

Earlier in the day,, Jakarta said it had no plans to cut diplomatic ties with Australia because of their falling out over the East Timor crisis.

"We have not yet considered cutting off diplomatic relations with Australia," Justice Minister/Secretary of State Muladi said.

President B.J. Habibie on Tuesday accused Australia of overreacting to the East Timor issue and damaging bilateral ties.

Australia was among Western nations that pressured Jakarta to accept a UN force into the Indonesian-ruled territory to restore order there.

Indonesia only reluctantly invited the force in and this month froze a four-year-old security pact with Australia which had berated Jakarta for failing to stem the East Timor bloodshed.

Two Australian consulates have been forced to close and many Australians have been evacuated from the archipelago as popular rage against Canberra has surged in recent weeks.

Anti-Australian sentiment continued on Thursday.

In Ujungpandang, waves of anti-Australia protests hit the city as five groups of protesters took turns in their public condemnations at the gubernatorial office and the council building.

The five groups -- the Makassar Muslim Students Association, the Students Action Solidarity on Moral Enforcement, City Students, National People's Front along with protesters grouped in the Gamma student association.

Protesters demanded all Australian products be barred from South Sulawesi until the country withdraws its troops from East Timor. (30/edt/byg/prb)