Australia supports RI's territorial integrity

CANBERRA (JP): Just hours before President Abdurrahman Wahid touched down here, Prime Minister John Howard told parliament that Australia fully supports the territorial integrity of Indonesia and that the presidential visit is an opportunity to put past troubles between the two countries behind them.

The prime minister highlighted the symbolic significance of the visit, despite the repeated postponements and Monday's unforeseen delay.

"We respect and support, and will continue to advocate in the international fora the territorial integrity of the Republic of Indonesia," pledged Howard who is to hold talks with Abdurrahman on Tuesday morning.

He insisted that Canberra would "continue to express our hope that secessionist issues can be resolved, including through autonomy provisions."

Relations between Jakarta and Canberra hit a new low following the East Timor issue in 1999.

Domestic resentment in many corners of Indonesian society remain high and it was this antipathy, particularly from leading politicians, which had forced Abdurrahman to postpone five previously scheduled trips to one of Indonesia's closest neighbors.

Many in Indonesia continue to raise apprehensions about Australia and its possible support for other secessionist movements in Indonesia, particularly Irian Jaya, despite Canberra's professed support for Indonesia's territorial integrity.

It is difficult to forget that Australia, one of the few countries who formally recognized the integration of East Timor, suddenly seemed to change its stance by suggesting the possibility of a ballot in the former Indonesian province.

But Howard made it clear on Monday that Australia strongly backs Indonesian sovereignty and that it was time to put the crisis over East Timor in the past.

"I would offer the view that events surrounding East Timor, although they caused tension at a political level, did not essentially undermine the strong people to people links that have existed between Australia and Indonesia over a long period of time," he said.

Opposition leader Kim Beazley after welcoming Abdurrahman upon his arrival when asked by journalists on the question of separatist movement in Irian Jaya also affirmed that he fully supported Indonesian territorial integrity.

He stressed that Irian Jaya was very much a part of Indonesia.

Both Howard and Beazley stressed the importance of the visit in mending and elevating ties between the two countries.

The usual critical Australian press in their editorials and commentaries also lauded the trip as a significant symbolic step forward, albeit expecting little substantial results during meetings between the two leaders. (mds)