Dewi Fortuna responds

I regret very much that my interview published in The Jakarta Post on Sept. 14 concerning the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon has been misconstrued by some people as an endorsement of these heinous acts.

Let met state clearly here that I have always been opposed to violence, especially acts that cause the loss of innocent lives, whether they are carried out by state or non-state actors. Terrorism, whatever its motivation, cannot and should not be tolerated.

My response to the questions posed by the Post on why such violent attacks against the symbols of American economic and military power took place, was that these acts could have been motivated by feelings of grievances against the U.S., particularly the U.S. policy in the Middle East.

We know for a fact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has dragged on for nearly six decades, lies at the core of many terrorist threats and attacks against American interests worldwide, as well as acting as the primary irritant in American relations with Islamic countries as a whole.

The U.S. has always supported Israel, even when the latter has attacked and killed innocent Palestinian lives, but quick to condemn if the violence is carried out by the Palestinians. American missiles and bombs have killed many innocent lives in the Middle East, in Sudan and in Afghanistan. All of these have created many enemies for the United States, which may have motivated terrorist attacks against American interests.

Unless the U.S. is willing to address these fundamental problems there is little chance that these forms of terrorism can be dealt with effectively. To point this out is not to be anti- Semitic, as Ambassador Gelbard accused me of being, but to appeal to reasoning that violence cannot simply be met with more violence.

DEWI FORTUNA ANWAR

Deputy for Social Sciences and Humanities

Indonesian Institute of Sciences

Jakarta