Evans comes under fire for RI envoy's retreat
Evans comes under fire for RI envoy's retreat
SYDNEY (Agencies): Foreign Minister Gareth Evans came under sharp fire in the press here yesterday for his role in Indonesia's retreat on the appointment of Indonesian Lt. Gen. Herman Mantiri as ambassador designate.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas withdrew Mantiri as its nominee on Thursday after a furor had erupted in Australia over the general's 1992 comment on the November 1991 Dili incident in East Timor.
General retreat blared the front-page headline of the tabloid Daily Telegraph Mirror. The Australian's headline was Mantiri: Angry Jakarta retreats and The Sydney Morning Herald said Jakarta backs down.
Mantiri's appointment drew widespread criticism because of comments he made about the Dili incident in which Indonesian troops clashed with East Timorese mourners, leaving 50 people dead at Santa Cruz cemetery.
"We don't regret anything. What happened was quite proper," he was quoted as saying in a 1992 magazine interview. Mantiri, then head of the military command which includes East Timor, later said he had been misquoted.
Describing the "debacle" as the absolute low point in Evans' career, The Australian's foreign editor Greg Sheridan wrote, "It is one of the worst-handled, most maladroit and damaging episodes in Australian diplomacy in several years."
Sheridan said Australia failed to tell Indonesia in advance that the appointment was unacceptable and then "the government scuttled for cover at the first whiff of grapeshot in Australian domestic politics."
The Australian newspaper applauded Jakarta's tact and skill and said Canberra looked "unusually clumsy".
The Sydney Morning Herald's Asian Editor and Indonesian expert David Jenkins said the withdrawal of Mantiri "was a wise and well-timed move."
Newspapers said Alatas' decision to leave the ambassadorial position temporarily vacant was a diplomatic signal of annoyance.
Melbourne's The Age newspaper said in a commentary yesterday:
"The general's decision to pull out has reduced Indonesian- Australian relations to a shambles, driving them to their lowest point" since the Dili incident, it said, adding that "Canberra and Jakarta badly misread and mismanaged the general's appointment."
Meanwhile, news report from Canberra said yesterday that Defense Minister Rober Ray had denied suggestions that Australia's top officer had encouraged Mantiri in his bid to be Indonesia's ambassador here.
Gen. John Baker, who became Australia's Chief of Defense Force yesterday, telephoned Mantiri this week and press reports said he had congratulated the Indonesian officer on his diplomatic appointment.
"I'm always very reluctant to reveal the details of a private telephone conversation, but I will make an exception on this occasion," Ray told the Australian Associated Press.
Ray said the two officers were friends, having developed a close relationship over the years.