Indonesia still unhappy over East Timor conference

Indonesia still unhappy over East Timor conference

MANILA (Agencies): An Indonesian minister abruptly canceled a meeting with Philippine President Fidel Ramos yesterday as a row between the neighbors over East Timor apparently continued despite conciliatory moves by Manila.

Minister of Industry Tunky Ariwibowo had been scheduled to call on Ramos Monday afternoon, but failed to turn up.

The Indonesian embassy said the minister had to extend his stay in the United States to take care of official matters, but his absence was widely seen as a show of continuing displeasure, according to Agence France Presse.

Indonesian delegates have also snubbed regional business and media conferences being hosted by the Philippines, which also started yesterday.

Jakarta has been outraged by a privately-sponsored meeting here next week to discuss the question of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony which integrated with Indonesia in 1976.

Officials in Jakarta said that the meeting was providing a platform for people who opposed the integration.

Ramos on Friday banned foreigners led by exiled East Timor dissidents, but this was apparently not enough for Jakarta, which wants the meeting scrapped, although Ramos says he cannot call off a privately sponsored conference because of constitutional constraints.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo issued a statement yesterday insisting that the ban on foreign delegates to the East Timor conference was done out of "national interest," not to bow to Indonesian demands.

He said the decision was made "mainly in order to uphold the policy of not allowing the use of Philippine territory by foreign partisan political groups against foreign countries, particularly those with which the Philippines enjoys close and cordial relations."

"Under Philippine law, the admission of aliens is not a demandable right but a privilege and is subject solely to the pleasure of the government," he said.

Unnamed

Meanwhile, organizers said unnamed foreign delegates will enter the Philippines to attend the conference despite the government's ban.

Leftist activist Renato Constantino, chief organizer of the conference, said that although Manila had a list of foreigners barred from the seminar due to start on May 31, there were other foreign delegates not on the list who still planned to attend.

Constantino would not identify these delegates but said they were "international participants who do not feel they are covered by this ban."

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas in Jakarta said yesterday that his government would continue to sponsor the planned peace talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Moslem separatists, in spite of the current tiff.

All the parties involved in the peace talks are still searching for the most suitable date, Alatas said.

There had been suggestions earlier that Indonesia may pull out its sponsorship of the talks, originally planned for next month, if Manila cannot prevent the East Timor talks.

The diplomatic row has also resulted in the indefinite postponement of a regional business conference in the southern Philippines later this week and threatened to cancel planned Indonesian investment in this country.

Senator Rodolfo Biazon warned that the dispute "could lead to the disintegration of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand as well as the Philippines and Indonesia.

Adelberto Antonino, mayor of the southern city of General Santos, which has been affected by the controversy, challenged the conference organizers to look into the effect of the canceled investments.