Govt cautioned on U.S. motives in Iraq

Govt cautioned on U.S. motives in Iraq

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

An Indonesian Muslim leader has cautioned the government
against the U.S. threat to attack Iraq, saying it could be
motivated by a desire to control the world's oil production
rather than to combat terrorism.

"I'm curious about why the U.S. insists on launching a
military operation against Iraq. Furthermore, telling the world
that Iraq is developing a nuclear project is a big mistake for
the U.S.," Achmad Sjafi'i Maarif, chairman of Muhammadiyah, the
country's second largest Muslim organization, told The Jakarta
Post on Wednesday.

He said the UN had failed to prove the allegation during its
latest inspection in Iraq in 1998.

Despite Iraq's agreement on Tuesday for the unconditional
return of UN arms inspectors, the U.S. said the offer would fail
to prevent UN action to disarm Baghdad and called for a tough new
Security Council resolution to deal with Saddam.

The U.S., which has publicly made its case for regime change
in Iraq, further called Iraq's move to readmit inspectors a
tactic that would fail.

Nevertheless, the situation has been given mixed reactions
from countries on the Security Council with the right to veto,
especially Russia and China, as the two have yet to decide
whether or not the resolution is required.

Asked how the government should respond to the U.S policy on
Iraq, Sjafii said: "I'm not interested in commenting on what
(President) Megawati (Soekarnoputri) has to do. But I am warning
you that unlike the Gulf War in 1991, the U.S. has gradually lost
support from several countries in the Middle East and Europe."

Sjafii also criticized the U.S. for its failure to act as
savior of the world's civilization, a role it should have played
following the breakup of its longtime rival, the Soviet Union, in
1989. Instead, it had acted more as a "political cowboy for the
sake of certain interests."

"If the Bush administration has an antipathy against (Iraqi
President) Saddam Hussein, it should not force (the UN) to impose
tough resolutions against Iraq because it will only harm
civilization there."

Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, has
been caught in a difficult situation ever since the U.S launched
the war on terrorism following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks blamed
on Osama bin Laden's international terrorist group al-Qaeda.
Then, Indonesian Muslims launched protests over what they
considered to be efforts to discredit Islam.

Meanwhile, Riza Sihbudi, an observer on Middle East issues,
questioned the UN's double standards regarding Iraq and Israel,
given that "the two countries have reportedly been developing
weapons of mass destruction."

"We need just to have a look at the entire U.S. policy on Iraq
to see it is not clear. If the U.S. insists on destroying weapons
of mass destruction, I guess Iraq is not the only one because
Israel, too, has the weapons.

"If the U.S. insists on imposing stern action against
countries it considers to have violated the resolution (on
weapons of mass destruction), how about Israel?" he asked.

Indonesian Society for Middle East Studies (ISMES) vice
president Smith Alhadar said the U.S. plan to remove Saddam was
triggered by its ambition to control the world's oil production
sources, especially in Iraq, considering that "Iraq is the only
rival of the U.S. among Middle East countries."

"I hope Megawati will be wise enough to see whether the U.S.
campaign has been motivated by economic reasons instead of
security reasons," Smith told the Post.

Iraq, which has the world's second largest oil reserves after
Saudi Arabia with an estimated 112 billion barrels, has long been
opposed to U.S. policies, and has given both moral and financial
support to Palestine in its fight against Israel.

U.S. oil firms have been excluded from Iraq's huge oil
reserves since the end of the 1980s when Washington-Baghdad
relations deteriorated.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that companies from a dozen countries,
led by Tatneft of Russia and TotalFinaElf of France, had made
agreements with Iraq. But many will only start after the end of
UN sanctions against Saddam's government.

Riza doubted whether the U.S. policy was still related to its
antiterrorism campaign because it had failed to present evidence
that Iraq harbors international terrorists.

"The U.S. recently disclosed that there are 60 countries in
this world that allegedly have links to terrorist groups. Iraq
has never been the only one (with terrorist links)," Riza told
the Post.

The U.S. policy on Iraq has also drawn objections from many of
Indonesia's Muslim figures. Hasyim Muzadi, of the country's
largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), noted Muslim
scholars Nurcholis Madjid and Azyumardi Azra of the State Islamic
Institute (IAIN) Syarief Hidayatullah are among those opposed to
the U.S. plan to attack Iraq.