Indonesia-Malaysia talks on island row deadlocked

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas conceded yesterday that negotiations with Malaysia to settle the status of two small islands off East Kalimantan have reached a deadlock.

The Joint Working Group has reached a "saturation point", Alatas was quoted by Antara as telling a hearing with Commission I of the House of Representatives.

The working group was established in 1992 after leaders of the two countries agreed that the row over the sovereignty of the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan should be settled amicably.

Both sides are maintaining their respective legal arguments, Alatas said.

"Given this reality, the two sides agreed that the issue should be discussed at the political level to find a solution in the spirit of good neighborly relations," he told the commission, which overseas security and foreign affairs.

Pending a solution, the two countries have agreed that each has the right to patrol the islands, and that differences would be settled peacefully, he said.

Each claimant came to the negotiating table armed with maps inherited by its colonial master. The Netherlands, which occupied Indonesia, and the British, which ruled Malaysia, never really settled the ownership question and the row continued after Indonesia and Malaysia gained independence.

Although the two sides have agreed to maintain the islands' present status pending a solution, the conflict heightened in the early 1990s, when Malaysia began touting Sipadan as one of its latest exotic tourist destinations.

The Antara report did not say whether Indonesia would agree to the case being referred to the International Court of Justice, one alternative that had been suggested by Malaysia.

Alatas also explained to the House the details of the peace agreement between the Moro National Liberation Front and the Philippine government, which Indonesia helped broker.

The agreement, he said, is a significant contribution toward the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' goal of establishing a zone of peace, freedom and neutrality in the region.

Moreover, peace in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao bodes well for the plan to establish an economic growth area, linking Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines (BIMP), he said. "It is difficult to envisage that the BIMP project could succeed without restoring peace in the southern Philippines." (emb)