Indonesia braces for U.S. war on Iraq

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While continuing its opposition to any United States plan to invade Iraq without the approval of the United Nations, Indonesia says it is already bracing itself for the worst.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirajuda said on Wednesday that the international debate about Iraq would intensify in the days approaching Jan. 27, when the UN weapons inspection team was due to publish its report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

"We have already taken steps to anticipate the worst scenario," Hassan told a media conference to discuss the challenges facing his office this year.

"First and foremost will be the protection and safety of our citizens in that region, and the impact on our economy."

He did not explain the steps that Indonesia would take to prepare for the possibility of a U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Any such invasion will likely lead to a strong public backlash, particularly from the Muslim community, similar to the anger leveled against the United States when it started bombing Taliban and al-Qaeda positions in Afghanistan in 2001.

But going by the experience of October 2001, Indonesian police should have since learned more about crowd control to prevent possible outbreaks of violence outside the U.S. Embassy and other American interests that will likely become targets for attacks.

It took the police a little while in 2001 before they cracked down on radical groups who had publicly vowed to cause harm and injury to Americans and Westerners.

As a further indication that Gulf War Part II is imminent, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is expected to arrive in Jakarta on Thursday as part of a whirlwind visit of the region.

Britain is the U.S.'s staunchest supporter for its plan to attack Iraq. Straw, who is flying in from Singapore, is scheduled to meet with President Megawati Soekarnoputri during his one-day stop in Jakarta, before proceeding to Kuala Lumpur.

Hassan told reporters that he hoped to ask Straw to explain "what plans Britain and the United States have, and what the U.S. will do" against Iraq.

"We will ask what evidence they have as the basis of their accusations that Iraq owns weapons of mass destruction."

Straw is also scheduled to speak at the headquarters of the Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, according to Agence France Presse.

Hassan, in his written presentation, cited Iraq as one of the most serious global issues facing Indonesia's foreign policy conduct in 2003.

"Indonesia has been consistent in supporting every effort to disarm weapons of mass destruction through the United Nations Security Council mechanism," he said.

"But we find it hard to accept making the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction interchangeable with the target of changing the regime in Iraq.

"The question of Iraq is inseparable from the present tug of war between multilateralism, which we support, and unilateralism, a trend which has grown stronger since the end of the Cold War," he said without naming the U.S.

Hassan stressed that in spite of its position on the multilateralism-unilateralism debate, Indonesia would continue to manage its relations with the U.S. and other major global powers productively, stressing that such bilateral relations should not be held hostage by a single issue.

"Indonesia's diplomatic reaches will be directed at strengthening multilateralism through the United Nations. With the end of the Cold War 13 years ago, international politics and security is heading towards unipolarism, with the emergence of a single military power with global reaches.

"Hopes for a new international order arising out of the multilateralism is thinning with the emergence of unilateralism.

"The Gulf War, the Balkan War and the intensive campaign towards a war on Iraq came out of the unilateral acts that ignore the multilateral process under the UN auspices," he said.