`Dili incident blown out of proportion'

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas says the recent student demonstrations in the East Timor capital of Dili have been widely exaggerated by the foreign media and Indonesia's critics overseas.

"I am sorry to see that it has again been blown out of proportion, because these things can happen at any student gathering in any country," Alatas told a press conference at his office, attended by local and foreign journalists yesterday.

The incident is not unlike other student protests in any Indonesian city. "But immediately it becomes a very big affair because it happened in East Timor," he said.

This is the first press conference given by Alatas since he returned to work last Saturday after a two months absence. The minister had been out of action because of a heart attack.

The Armed Forces (ABRI) has already issued a statement explaining the chain of events that led up to the demonstration at the state-owned, East Timor University in Dili last week.

The statement denied that there were any fatalities in the incident when police moved to disperse a protest which was becoming uncontrollable. A number of people arrested at the time have been released and the few people who were injured have also been discharged from the hospital.

The military said previous investigations found that not all the demonstrators were students and that certain parties were behind the incidents.

"(These things) can happen anywhere, but because it happened in East Timor, all kinds of theories developed," Alatas said, adding: "There are always some irresponsible people, some stupid people, doing stupid things".

Alatas denied the accusations made by Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Dili, that the conflict in East Timor is now carrying religious connotations.

"I think he knows that there is no religious persecution in East Timor. He should know better than anyone, as the figures show that Catholicism has flourished in East Timor since integration."

Alatas thought it was "very irresponsible" to bring in accusations of persecution when actually there was none. "And he of all people should know that there is great religious tolerance in Indonesia, especially in East Timor. Otherwise the Catholic church would not have flourished as it has in the short span of a decade, as compared to the 400 years of Portuguese colonization."

AMM

Alatas also briefed reporters about the series of meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok beginning on Friday this week which he will attend.

He said Indonesia had expressed its objections to Thailand against the plan by several non-governmental organizations to organize a seminar on East Timor simultaneously in Bangkok.

Indonesia's objection was based on the fact that the seminar was used by people who oppose East Timor's integration as a political campaign against Indonesia, he said.

"There have been numerous seminars on East Timor, and we realize that these seminars are the means by which our enemies stay alive," Alatas said. "What we try to tell (the ASEAN neighbors) is that this is not one of the pure, academic seminars," he said.

Indonesia had also expressed its objection to similar seminars in Manila and Kuala Lumpur over the past two months.

The ASEAN gathering will open this week with the meeting of the group's foreign ministers.

On Monday, the group will hold the inaugural ASEAN Regional Forum meeting which will also involve 12 other countries, including the United States, China, Russia and Japan, to discuss security situation in the Asia-Pacific region.

On July 26-28, the ASEAN ministers will be meeting with their counterparts from the countries that are their major trading partners. (pwn)