Indonesia orders hundreds of diplomats home

Indonesia orders hundreds of diplomats home

JAKARTA (JP): The monetary crisis has forced Indonesia to
begin calling home at least 200 of its diplomats stationed
abroad.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas confirmed the plan
after attending the Third Meeting of the Joint Commission on
Economic and Technical Cooperation between Thailand and Indonesia
yesterday.

He said the diplomats would not be replaced.

The ministry's secretary-general, Abdul Irsan, said before the
pullback that about 1,200 diplomats were posted in 111 missions
overseas.

Alatas said the ministry had also decided to shorten
diplomats' time of service in foreign countries from the current
average of four years to two-and-a-half years.

"Those who have stayed abroad for two-and-a-half years will
probably be pulled back home," Alatas said, adding that when they
reached home, the officials would be deployed in various
directorate general offices in the ministry, in accordance with
their respective expertise.

Funds allocated to the ministry for routine expenditure in the
1998/1999 draft budget presented to the House of Representatives
last month increased to Rp 1.34 trillion from the previous year's
Rp 961 billion.

But the budget for development expenses -- for projects such
as promotion and countering negative publicity about Indonesia
abroad, shrunk to Rp 12.88 billion from the previous year's Rp 49
billion.

After the budget was presented, Alatas admitted that austerity
measures were needed given the rupiah's drastic depreciation
against the U.S. dollar.

Indonesia's permanent representative at the United Nations,
Ambassador Makarim Wibisono said yesterday that this month alone
five diplomats had been sent home.

"Other diplomats will follow in the near future," Makarim told
reporters after meeting with President Soeharto at the
President's residence on Jl. Cendana, Central Jakarta.

Makarim said that if the campaign to call home diplomats
continued, the number abroad would be halved by June.

The Joint Commission meeting said there had been an exchange
of information on economic problems in both Indonesia and
Thailand and the development of international and regional
economics.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of Thailand opening
a consulate here.

Both countries have also agreed to boost trade, investment,
tourism, research and technological cooperation.

Minister Alatas and his counterpart, Minister Surin Pitsuwan,
signed on behalf of their respective governments at the end of
the meeting the Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of
Investments.

The Thai government, through minister Surin, yesterday
symbolically gave one-million-baht (US$24,400) worth of medicine
to the people of Irian Jaya who are recovering from a drought.
(byg/prb)