Indonesia's Balkans peace effort

Indonesia's Balkans peace effort

As chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, President Soeharto
has fulfilled his responsibility. After his historic and dramatic
visit, his judgment was that the crisis in Bosnia called for a
new approach aimed at attaining a comprehensive settlement. In
the President's opinion, the Bosnia crisis can only be
satisfactorily settled if the three parties involved can be
brought together to meet face-to-face, directly and without the
interference of outside parties.

President Soeharto was prompted to make that statement not
only because of feelings of empathy and solidarity with a fellow
non-aligned country, but also because of our own experience,
gained in our struggles to maintain our unity and cohesion and to
avert disintegration due to ethnic conflicts and attempts to
misuse religion to fan secessionist sentiments.

But this spirit of concern is based not only on our experience
in nurturing and defending our national unity. Indonesia, under
the administration of President Soeharto, also has registered a
number of diplomatic accomplishments by facilitating negotiations
to settle conflicts within troubled nations trying to restore
their national unity, which was disrupted by ideological, ethnic
and local rivalries.

Honest observers will have noted how Jakarta and Bogor have
witnessed the holding of negotiations aimed at settling conflicts
among factions in Cambodia and in the Philippines. The Cambodians
and Filipinos are Asians. Culturally, there is a certain affinity
between them and us. The Bosnians, Croats and Serbs are
Europeans. Nevertheless, God willing, we will be able to
facilitate negotiations between Izetbegovic, Tudjman and
Milosevic through the language of humanity -- a difficult but
noble task.

-- Republika, Jakarta