Indonesia signals active role in UN security council
Indonesia signals active role in UN security council
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will oppose the use of force in resolving international disputes during its two-year tenure in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which begins this month.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said in his annual policy briefing to the media yesterday that force should only be used as a last resort, where all other peaceful and diplomatic attempts at resolution had failed.
The United Nations has in the past sanctioned the use of military force to achieve the implementation of certain resolutions.
Most notorious was the 1991 Gulf War in which a Western alliance beseiged and bombarded Iraq, in the name of the UN, after Baghdad failed to comply with UN resolutions.
Indonesia strenuously protested this course but its voice was not heeded.
Having officially assumed the two-year position at the Security Council on Sunday, Alatas yesterday asserted that Jakarta would not stand idle in the face of such flagrant uses of force.
A less coercive stance would increase the prestige of the Security Council, the minister reasoned.
Alatas further stated that Indonesia would like to see more transparency, accountability, legitimacy and efficiency at the UNSC, along with a higher degree of preventive diplomacy in the potential flashpoints in the world.
He also said that the modest use of veto powers since the end of the cold war should be maintained.
The UNSC is made up of 10 non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly to serve two-year terms, while five-nations hold permanent membership and have exclusive veto rights. The council's permanent members are Britain, the United States, Russia, China and France.
"The composition of the Security Council is a fact we have to accept. You can't do much about it," Alatas remarked.
He acknowledged that it would be difficult for a country like Indonesia to make a tremendous impact but it could, he said, play an influential role.
According to Alatas one key aspect of Indonesia's role would be the maintenance of unity and cohesion within the "Non-Aligned Movement Caucus" at the UNSC. The Caucus is made up of the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM) countries currently on the Security Council: Botswana, Nigeria, Oman, Rwanda and Indonesia.
"Don't give up. We can make a difference if we are united," Alatas said in reference to the NAM Caucus, which accounts for one-third of the members of this Western dominated council.
Speaking on the question of an expansion of the permanent membership, Alatas reiterated Jakarta's position that it supports the idea "in principle."
He said that Indonesia would not object to the inclusion of Japan and Germany in the council, because the two countries had "strong grounds to be permanent members."
However, Alatas decried any expansion of the Council without the inclusion of developing countries. He said that without such inclusion the UNSC would continue to be dominated by the developed countries with only China to represent developing countries.(mds)