Diplomatic row with Canada continues
Diplomatic row with Canada continues
OTTAWA (Agencies): Canada will seek clarification of comments by the Indonesian ambassador that were construed as a veiled threat to an East Timor dissident living in Canada, a foreign ministry official said, AFP reported yesterday.
It was the latest step in a simmering diplomatic row that began last month when Indonesian Ambassador to Canada Benjamin Parwoto paid a visit in East Timor to the mother of the dissident, Isabel Galhos.
The Canadian Government maintains that the visit was "inappropriate because his action left itself open to the interpretation that it was an attempt to put pressure on a Canadian resident."
Parwoto visited Galhos' mother, Teresa, on Jan. 19 after hosting a Canadian trade mission led by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in Jakarta.
Last week, the Canadian government summoned Parwoto to protest the visit to Galhos's mother. The move came after two Canadian diplomats in Jakarta traveled to Dili to meet with the mother.
On Wednesday the Indonesian Government summoned Canadian Ambassador Lawrence Dickenson in Jakarta to express "great regret" about the original Canadian protest to Parwoto.
Galhos, who lives in Ottawa, is a member of the human rights group East Timor Alert Network and she claims the visit to her mother was a case of "the ambassador just trying to silence me."
Galhos was a student at the University of East Timor in Dili who joined an exchange students program to come to Canada. When she arrived here she "defected" and sought, and gained, Canadian citizenship, according to Antara. She has since launched a campaign for a separate East Timor state from Canada.
Parwoto, in an interview with Canadian journalists on Wednesday, maintained he was not trying to silence Galhos through her mother.
But, in what some have interpreted as a veiled threat, he added: "By saying (the visit was threatening), Isabel Galhos keeps her mother in more danger than before.
"People who are pro-integration, they may try to do something to her mother. I am worried."
Canadian Foreign Ministry spokesman Colin Stewart said Ottawa would be seeking a clarification of Parwoto's remarks. "We see those comments as unfortunate and clearly open to all sorts of interpretation."