Government pressured to freeze diplomatic ties with Australia

Government pressured to freeze diplomatic ties with Australia

JAKARTA (JP): The country's main political parties have put
their domestic rivalry behind them to unite in urging the
government to freeze diplomatic ties with Australia over its
perceived offensive policy on East Timor.

Yogyakarta and Central Java provincial chapters of the
National Awakening Party (PKB) said in their statements on
Saturday that decades of close relationships between the two
countries could no longer be maintained for what they called
Australia's intervention in Indonesia's domestic affairs.

"What Australia has done in connection to the East Timor issue
recently is far from favorable for a healthy and beneficial
relationship," secretary-general of PKB's Yogyakarta chapter Nur
Ahmad Affandi said.

His Central Java counterpart Karding Abdulkadir said in
Semarang that Australia had failed to behave as a good friend and
neighbor of Indonesia by having foreign policies which
complicated, instead of easing, the turmoil in the former
Portuguese colony.

"It's better for us to break with Australia because it has
been campaigning to discredit Indonesia, and even intended to
force its way into the republic's territory," Karding said.

Earlier on Friday leaders of the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Golkar Party and National Mandate
Party (PAN) were unanimous in accusing Australia of "spreading
terror" with its persistent demand for an immediate dispatch of a
peace keeping force to East Timor.

Australia has called on the United Nations and the world
community to send a peacekeeping force to East Timor to stop the
bloodshed which followed an overwhelming rejection to a wide-
ranging autonomy package offered by Indonesia in the UN-
sanctioned ballot on Aug. 30.

The Australian government said it had prepared 4,500 troops
for an international peacekeeping contingent in East Timor.

Thousands of Timorese are feared to have been killed in the
flurry of violence blamed on the military-backed prointegration
militia groups, which contended the result of the vote citing
alleged irregularities.

Karding lashed out at Australia's failure to stop anti-
Indonesia demonstrators from attacking buildings and other
facilities belonging to Indonesia.

A wave of rallies against Australia have also hit the capital
city and other major towns in the country. Some of them ended up
with flag burning actions.

Deputy chairman of PDI Perjuangan, Dimyati Hartono, told a
seminar on Friday night he threw his weight behind a diplomatic
break-up with Australia if the country continued its campaign
against Indonesia.

"We can take the drastic measure if necessary, just to show
Australia that it needs a good neighbor like us," Dimyati said as
quoted by Antara. "And if Australian troops land in East Timor
without UN consent, 200 million Indonesians will take up arms to
fight them."

His National Mandate Party (PAN) counterpart A.M. Fatwa, who
also spoke in the seminar, refrained from suggesting a complete
break with Australia, but said Indonesia could pull its
ambassador to Canberra back home.

"Never let Australia terrorize us. We're a big nation whose
pride is now at stake," Fatwa said.

PDI Perjuangan, winner of the June elections, and PAN have
officially accepted the results of the self-determination ballot
on East Timor's future, which saw 78.5 percent of the vote cast
in favor of independence.

Both Karding and Ahmad agreed that frozen ties with Australia
would not wreak havoc on Indonesia's efforts to recover its
battered economy.

"We gain no profits from our trade with Australia. Even if we
freeze diplomatic ties with them, businesspeople from the two
countries will continue their trade," Ahmad said.

Meanwhile, dozens of East Timorese proautonomy students in
Semarang announced their rejection of the self-determination
ballot results and said they were prepared to take to the forests
for a guerrilla movement against the new East Timor government.

"We believe the outcome was set up by the UN which wants East
Timor to part from Indonesia. We could have accepted a defeat if
the ballot ran fairly," one of the students said.

He said his colleagues who are studying in Yogyakarta and East
Java will follow suit. (swa/har/amd)