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."

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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)