Australia wants envoy without E. Timor links

Australia wants envoy without E. Timor links

SYDNEY (Agencies): The Australian government wants Indonesia's next ambassador to Australia to have had no involvement in actions in East Timor which could be considered "distasteful", Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said yesterday.

"The main point is just to ensure that it's 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 said in a television interview, Reuter reported.

Indonesia withdrew retired Lt. Gen. H.B.L. Mantiri's nomination as ambassador to Australia in early July following protests here over Mantiri's initial refusal to apologize for comments in support of the 1991 incident in Dili, East Timor.

Mantiri's nomination met with strong opposition in Australia for his remarks in a 1992 interview with the now defunct Editor magazine, in which he reportedly said that the military's action in a bloody demonstration at the Santa Cruz cemetery was "quite proper".

Evans said Australia would prefer a civilian for the post, but the main criterion was the nominee's record on the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, which integrated with Indonesia in 1976.

But Evans said ties with his Indonesian counterpart, Ali Alatas, remained strong despite controversy over Mantiri.

Since troops shot dead about 50 demonstrators in a Dili cemetery in late 1991, East Timor has remained a major focus of rights groups.

"Obviously it was a difficult time, the Mantiri one, for both of us," Evans said.

"But the relationship with Indonesia is so strong at so many different levels now that, as Alatas and I have been saying for so long, we can handle squalls of this kind in an intelligent way," he said.

Mantiri was originally to replace Sabam Siagian, who ended his term last month.

Announcing Mantiri's nomination on July 6, Alatas said, "After carefully monitoring the situation, the Indonesian government is of the view that the furor has become irrational in nature and entirely out of proportion."

Jakarta has left the ambassadorial post in Canberra vacant. The day-to-day job is currently being tackled by the Indonesian charge d'affaires, Zakaria Suminta Atmadja.