Italy supports RI's plan for peace in Bosnia

JAKARTA (JP): Italian Foreign Minister Susanna Agnelli said on Saturday that her country will support Indonesia's plan to facilitate a peace conference on the former Yugoslavia.

"Anybody who manages to get those people around the table and to come to some kind of peace negotiation I think is a very good idea," Agnelli said after meeting Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas at the end of her two-day stay here on Saturday.

She added that the proposal would not interfere with the current peace efforts pursued by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States.

On the contrary, if Jakarta's plan does succeed, Agnelli explained, "the whole world is going to be delighted."

President Soeharto's special envoy to Bosnia, Nana Sutresna, announced recently that the three leaders involved in the civil war -- Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, Croatian President F. Tudjman and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic -- have given their principle agreement to Indonesia's planned peace talks.

According to Nana, who has made several trips to the area in the past few months, the leaders themselves suggested Indonesia as the venue of the peace talks.

Indonesia's proposal has come into serious doubt however as high ranking officials of the three presidents denied any knowledge of the plan.

Minister Alatas on Tuesday also said that the plan was not yet confirmed.

Speaking on the upcoming Asia-Europe Summit, which is scheduled to be held in Thailand next March, Agnelli her feeling that both Indonesia and Italy will a play key role at the Summit.

Italy by that time will have assumed presidency of the European Union while Indonesia will be chairman of the seven- nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), both of whom are the meeting's principal engineers.

Earlier on Saturday, Agnelli and Alatas ratified an agreement to avoid double taxation between Indonesia and Italy.

The agreement, initially signed in 1990, is aimed at regulating income tax collection for Indonesian entrepreneurs in Italy and for Italian companies operating in Indonesia. The agreement will go into effect in both countries as of Jan 1, 1996.

It is hoped that with this agreement Italian investments in Indonesia will increase.

According to Alatas, Italian investments in Indonesian are rather low in comparison to other European states.

Italian investments stand at some US$47.5 million compared to the United Kingdom, which has $9.68 billion, the Netherlands $7.2 billion, Germany $2.07 billion and France $1.14 billion.

"Now a strong foundation has been created to increase investments from Italy to Indonesia, and from Indonesia to Italy if there are any," Alatas said.

Agnelli also paid a courtesy call on President Soeharto later on Saturday before flying to Beijing for the United Nations Conference on Women. (mds)