Indonesia closes ranks with peace backers on Iraq

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian government and civil society leaders closed ranks with peace backers France, Germany, and Russia over demands to resolve the Iraq crisis through diplomatic means, sending yet another message to the United States to drop its war plans.

In a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, the government said it "fully shares and supports the idea of strengthening the UN inspection team as suggested in the new initiative".

France, Germany and Russia suggested bringing in more weapons inspectors and equipment into Iraq to make sure it met resolution 1441 on the disarmament of its weapons of mass destruction.

Foreign affairs spokesman Marty M. Natalegawa said the measure "would send a powerful signal of the international community's common sense of purpose in urgently addressing the question of Iraq in an effective yet peaceful way,"

There are concerns that Iraq has failed to comply with the resolution after the UN inspection team presented the Security Council a mixed report last month.

The France-led proposal for more time and more inspection personnel came in response to the U.S.' call to disarm Iraq by force. Britain and Australia have lined up behind the U.S. call and eight European Union country members have voiced their support.

But Indonesia has consistently stressed the need to maximize the use of all diplomatic means to find a peaceful and lasting solution to the Iraq crisis, Marty said.

The government's position is shared by the public, indicated by the ongoing antiwar protests in Jakarta and other cities.

Last week thousands of antiwar protesters from the Justice Party clogged Jakarta's main thoroughfares for hours.

And as the war drums from Washington grow louder, an antiwar movement is forming in Indonesia. Prominent activists and various religious leaders joined in a high profile antiwar committee to press the case for peace.

Some of the names in the committee are journalist Goenawan Mohamad, Muslim scholars Nurcholish Madjid and Ulil Abshar Abdalla, rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis, and singer Iwan Fals.

The committee also groups together representatives from major religious groups as well as Indonesia's expatriate communities.

On Friday evening, dozens of women from the Women's Alliance Against War staged a protest at Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, holding up candles and distributing flyers to motorists.

Since last week small groups of protesters have shown up at the French, German, Russian and Chinese embassies, appealing to their governments to do more to prevent the war in Iraq.

The Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Indonesia Vladimir Y. Plotnikov said his government was doing its utmost to prevent the war from happening.

Russia and Indonesia, he said, agreed that any action against Iraq must come under a UN mandate.

"The Russian position is very clear and simple: we cannot launch an attack because the UN inspection team has not found any evidence (of weapons of mass destruction)," Plotnikov told reporters.

He said diplomatic pressure on Washington was coming from all around the world on a bilateral basis.

U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce has said that he understood Indonesia's position and he did not expect to have its support in the possible war.