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)