Minister says 'no' to foreign intervention in internal dispute

JAKARTA (JP): Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono told the House of Representatives that the government would not tolerate, under any circumstances, foreign intervention in the country's domestic affairs.

During a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission II for home affairs, Moerdiono said this was a principle which can not be broken in any situation.

"This is a fundamental principle which the government always clings to," he said when legislators asked about the controversy surrounding Washington's plan to reconsider the sale of F-16 jet fighters to Indonesia due to alleged human rights violations in the country.

Nevertheless he maintained that in defending the principle, Jakarta would not go so far as to say "go to hell with your aid".

"That's a past slogan. A bad dream of the past, (but) there are some fundamental things which we have to uphold," he remarked.

Indonesia in 1992 dissolved the Dutch-chaired Inter- Governmental Group on Indonesia because it felt The Hague was meddling in Indonesia's internal affairs.

Jakarta is currently in the process of negotiating the purchase of several F-16s which Washington had offered it. The sophisticated fighters had originally been bound for Pakistan before the deal failed.

However, several congressmen in Washington raised objections to the sale because they alleged the Indonesian authorities had violated human rights when they handled the rift within the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), including their handling of the July 27 rioting and the aftermath.

Moerdiono again reasserted Jakarta's position that it has no qualms about the deal falling through.

In his response, Moerdiono pointed out that it was the Americans who first approached Indonesia with the intent of selling the jet fighters.

He pointed out that such a purchase was not a priority for the Indonesian government whose main concern was on economic development. It was only because of the attractive soft-loan purchasing sale that Jakarta agreed to consider the purchase.

Moerdiono said a number of congressmen, who from the start have been unsympathetic toward Indonesia, have tried to block the sale.

"After the July 27 incident certain congressmen, who were opposed to the deal, began to raise their voices again. They tried to stop the sale of the planes," Moerdiono explained.

Moerdiono said Washington has not come to a final decision on whether to cancel or go ahead with the sale of the F-16s. (mds)