Mandela's letter sent to the wrong embassy

Mandela's letter sent to the wrong embassy

JAKARTA (JP): The mystery over the snail's pace of South
African President Nelson Mandela's letter to President Soeharto
was solved yesterday when it was revealed the letter had been
sent to the Portuguese embassy instead of the Indonesian embassy
in Pretoria.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas revealed the snafu had
been created by South African officials.

"It should have been delivered to the Indonesian Embassy in
Pretoria. But according to the embassy report it was mistakenly
sent by South African presidential officials to the Portuguese
embassy," Alatas was quoted by Antara as saying from Phnom Penh
late Saturday evening.

Early last week Mandela said that he had sent a letter to
Soeharto urging the release of jailed East Timorese rebel leader
Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao.

But the letter was only received Friday afternoon.

"It's rather strange and for such an error and mistake the
South African government has apologized to the Indonesian side,
from the president to the foreign minister to their ambassador in
Jakarta," Alatas remarked.

Alatas was in Phnom Penh leading an Association of Southeast
Asian Nations mission to meet with Cambodian strongman Hun Sen.

Alatas said he does not blame the South African side since it
was probably delivered by a low ranking officer. But he wondered,
why Portugal did not return the letter.

"I really question Portugal's morality. Withholding a letter
which was clearly not addressed to them is a sordid act,
especially then using that letter for unsavory purposes," he
charged.

The error also explains the media leak over the call to
release Xanana, Antara said.

The South African side only realized that the letter had been
missent after Alatas called his counterpart, A. Nzo, who
expressed surprise that it had not been delivered. According to
Nzo the letter was sent immediately after Mandela returned from
his state visit to Indonesia last month.

During the Mandela met Xanana in Jakarta July 15. The Timorese
rebel is currently serving a 20-year jail sentence.

Commenting on the call to release Xanana, Alatas said Mandela
had a right to make his view known, but Indonesia had its own
position, stressing that Xanana was jailed in accordance with the
due process of the law.

"Something which has been decided by legal process cannot be
changed just like that," Alatas remarked. "So we have our own
view, but let's just wait and see what the official response is
from President Soeharto."

Comments

National Commission on Human Rights member Muladi echoed the
government's stance, saying that giving Xanana a pardon would not
solve the East Timor problem.

"Thorough deliberations are needed before releasing Xanana,
not just a letter from Mandela," Muladi told The Jakarta Post in
Semarang, Central Java yesterday.

"Xanana and his gang possessed weapons and many East Timorese
fell victim to them. He (Xanana) is serving his sentence for
crimes he committed and not political reasons," he said.

Muladi speculated that human rights reasons might have
motivated Mandela to make the request. "I fully understood this,
because he (Mandela) spent a long time behind bars," he said.

In Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara, former minister of finance and
Indonesian ambassador to Portugal, Frans Seda, called on the
government to look for new initiatives to reach "a quick and
thorough settlement of East Timor dispute".

"The government always says the problem was resolved after the
1976 integration of East Timor into Indonesia but falls short of
answering alleged human rights violations in the former
Portuguese colony," Seda told the Post Saturday.

He compared the Indonesian government's efforts in East Timor
with those in West Irian in the 1960s. "It took us 12 years to
integrate Irian Jaya into our country. But the East Timor case
has yet to see a sign of settlement after 21 years," he said.
(har/yac/amd/mds)