Indonesia defends appointment of envoy to Australia

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday defended the appointment of Lt. Gen. (ret.) H.B.L. Mantiri as Indonesia's next ambassador to Australia after criticisms were voiced by some parties in Australia.

Irawan Abidin, the ministry's director of foreign information, dismissed the suggestion, made by Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, that Mantiri should apologize for remarks he made in a 1992 press interview on the bloody incident in Dili, East Timor, the previous year.

"Although perhaps open to misinterpretation, the message that Gen. Mantiri was trying to put across at that time was quite uncontroversial and therefore we see no reason for an apology," Irawan said in a written statement yesterday.

Canberra has accepted the nomination of Mantiri as the next Indonesian ambassador to replace Sabam Siagian, who is finishing his four-year term this week.

Over the past week, the Australian press has been publishing stories about remarks Mantiri made in the Indonesian magazine Editor while chief of the Udayana Military Command, which oversees East Timor.

According to Australian newspapers, the precise remarks of Mantiri regarding the 1991 Dili incident were:

"We don't regret anything. What happened was quite proper.

"They (the protesters) were opposing us, demonstrating, even yelling things against the government. To me, that is identical with rebellion, so that is why we took firm action."

Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating yesterday told parliament in Canberra that he would not veto Mantiri's appointment despite protests from parliamentarians.

"There are no circumstances that I can see where we would or should reject a nomination by the president (of Indonesia)."

Seventeen MPs, both government and opposition, signed a petition urging Canberra to persuade Indonesia to review Mantiri's appointment.

Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans has said that the Indonesian Army general was not personally involved in the Dili incident and that he was chosen by President Soeharto.

Evans acknowledged that the appointment could pose problem when the general moves to Canberra next month because he would have some explaining to do.

On Wednesday, he went further and suggested that Mantiri should apologize, Reuters reported.

"The bottom line is that what was said by him in 1992 was absolutely indefensible," Evans told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio. "Although he is a highly competent and respected individual, it's going to be tremendously important that he makes very clear, very soon after his arrival in Australia, that he deeply regrets those remarks," Evans said.

Irawan said Indonesia found it "difficult to understand" the demands for Mantiri's apology.

"When Gen. Mantiri made those remarks attributed to him in 1992, the full facts about these circumstances surrounding the unfortunate Dili incident had yet to be revealed through investigation by the proper authorities," he said.

"The most reasonable thing that he could do was to make a clarification to the effect that if the demonstration which precipitated the Dili incident was organized by people who were seeking economic opportunities, he was certainly not against it."

"But if it was organized by members of the security disturbance group who were out to undermine the duly constituted authorities, the security apparatus had to take action."

Indonesia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, who is currently in Phnom Penh on an official visit, refrained from commenting on Evan's demand for an apology until seeing the full report.

But he told an Antara reporter that Mantiri's appointment was already approved by Canberra. (emb)