Indonesia queries PNG policy on separatist rebels
Indonesia queries PNG policy on separatist rebels
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said yesterday that the government will look into the political implications of Papua New Guinea's policy of allowing Free Papua Movement (OPM) leader Moses Weror to maintain his base there.
"We will see what we can do," Alatas said in hearing with the House of Representatives Commission I for foreign affairs.
Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are committed to their treaty of friendship and mutual respect, in which the two neighbors agree not to give sanctuary to troublemakers from either country.
Weror, the first Irian Jaya native to become an Indonesian diplomat in the 1960s, is the self-proclaimed chief of the OPM revolutionary council and has obtained Papua New Guinea citizenship.
He fled to Papua New Guinea in 1971 after serving seven years and six months in an Irian Jaya jail for his involvement in the separatist OPM in the late 1960s.
He recently claimed to have direct control of OPM rebels who have been holding 12 people, including six Europeans, for three months in the Irian Jaya jungle. He has reportedly ordered that the hostages be released.
The hostage saga was one of the main topics discussed in the hearing led by Commission deputy chief Abu Hasan Sazili from the ruling political grouping, Golkar.
House member Zamharir, also from Golkar, charged that Port Moresby has breached the friendship treaty by allowing Weror and other OPM rebels to base their activities on its soil.
"Papua New Guinea has interfered in Indonesia's internal affairs by allowing OPM rebels to operate within its territory. The government should file a protest," he said.
Commission member Krissantono of the Golkar faction urged the government to find out why OPM rebels have been able to cross the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border so freely.
The OPM rebels took 26 people hostage on Jan. 8 in the Irian Jaya jungles of Mapunduma. Since then, 14 have been released and the rest remain in the hands of their abductors led by Kelly Kwalik and Daniel Kogoya.
Alatas expressed his belief that the missions of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help free the hostages would be more successful than the influence of local church leaders.
Media reports said that an ICRC team on Monday succeeded in persuading an exiled Weror to order the captives' release.
The Armed Forces (ABRI) Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Suyono said that the military is wary of the abductors' promise to free the hostages due to their many broken promises in the past.
Alatas defended the ICRC's role in ending the kidnapping drama and denied that the ICRC had acted without consulting the Indonesian government.
"They always inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Armed Forces headquarters about their activities, including their mission to Papua New Guinea," he said.
He was responding to legislator Endang Zainal Abidin from the United Development Party (PPP) who alleged that the ICRC teams have not been informing the government of their activities.
"They reportedly went to Papua New Guinea and Australia. They are not transparent about their activities. Was any government official ever informed of their mission?" he asked.
Meanwhile, Alatas brushed aside Japanese press reports that Indonesia is one of the Southeast Asian countries to have been approached by Taiwan for military cooperation in case China invades the "renegade province".
"Anyone who has a rudimentary knowledge of Indonesian foreign policy would know that the idea is ridiculous," he said. (pan)