Indonesia warns U.S. against attack on Iraq

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is taking a cautious stance on any possible United States military action in Iraq saying that Indonesia would always support peace efforts for the settlement of conflicts between the two countries.

Refusing to take the matter as "another Afghanistan case" which confused terrorism with religion in the minds of some people here, the government said that any problem that arose between the U.S. and Iraq should not be considered as a move against Islam.

"Our common position remains that we put forward peaceful resolutions to resolve any conflict situation, including the current developing situation in Iraq," Indonesian foreign affairs ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He suggested that the Iraq-U.S. issue should not be related to the fact that Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country as the possible U.S. military operation had nothing to do with any country's religion.

"It is the common stance of Indonesia that we support dialog or a resolution through the United Nations Security Council and we should not be distracted from the issue by throwing religion into the mix," Marty said.

The nation experienced quite a bit of tumult last year as domestic Muslim groups protested the U.S. decision to attack Afghanistan, as part of Washington's war against terrorism, which was provoked by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on two U.S. cities.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri was among the first heads of state that visited the U.S. after the tragedy and showed tacit support the war on terror, in return for a variety of financial promises made by Washington to help the country.

When the U.S. decided to hunt down Osama bin Laden, the suspected brain of the Sept. 11 attacks, in Afghanistan, Jakarta also refrained from making harsh comments against Washington, and simply expressed "deep concern" over the military operation.

Local Muslim groups considered it an attack on Islam and were disappointed that Indonesia was seen to be siding with the U.S. in the Afghan offensive. They demanded that Megawati take a stronger stance against the military operations, but the government was, and still is, constrained by its own economic plight from being overly critical of the West, as it is greatly dependent on financial aid from many Western countries, most of which were solidly behind the U.S.-led war.

After waves of anti-U.S. and Anti-Western protests swept the country, Megawati delivered a speech during a commemoration of an Islamic day, and demanded that the U.S. stop the attacks because too many innocent lives had been lost.

The government also approached other countries to maximize the pressure against the U.S., moves that apparently irked Washington, but which were officially ignored.

Megawati was not able to have a private meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Shanghai last year.

As if learning from experience and maintaining caution not to jeopardize the current firm relations between the two countries, especially when the U.S. is taking major steps toward restoring military relations, Jakarta is refraining from any critical statements on the U.S.-Iraq issue.

"We maintain the principles of our foreign policy, which is to support peace in the world," Marty reiterated.