No RI officials will attend Nobel ceremony: Alatas

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said yesterday Indonesian officials, both at home and those stationed abroad, would not attend Tuesday's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo for Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and exiled East Timor separatist leader Jose Ramos Horta.

During a hearing with House Commission I for foreign affairs and security, Alatas said even Indonesia's Ambassador to Oslo, Amiruddin Noor, who had been invited to attend the ceremony, would not be present.

Belo and Ramos Horta will be sharing the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. The award ceremony, to be held in Oslo, will also include an oration for the award winners.

Jakarta's grievance stems from the fact that Ramos Horta would also be a recipient of the award. Alatas claimed the situation would be different if it was Belo alone receiving the award.

The minister even hinted that the Indonesian Embassy in Oslo would be hosting a reception in honor of Belo.

Belo is traveling on an Indonesian passport, while Ramos Horta is believed to be using a Portuguese passport.

Alatas said it would be very difficult for Indonesian officials to attend the award ceremony and listen to Ramos Horta's acceptance speech, especially if he attacked Indonesia.

"It is very difficult for us politically to attend," he said. Alatas also said it would be awkward for the Indonesian ambassador to have to sit through such an unpleasant situation.

"I would pity the ambassador," Alatas said.

Jakarta has strongly questioned the Norwegian Nobel Committee's criteria for selecting Ramos Horta as a recipient.

"Politically, it is difficult for us to accept," he said of Ramos Horta's presence as a recipient at Tuesday's ceremony.

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor was integrated as Indonesia's 27th province in 1976. However, a small radical separatist movement, with Ramos Horta as one of its leaders, continued to solicit international support for their cause.

The United Nations continues to recognize Lisbon as the administrative power in the tiny province.

When asked whether any officials would be accompanying Belo to the ceremony, Alatas replied that there was no such thing as officials "accompanying" Belo.

He explained that only family members and friends chosen by the Nobel prize recipient would be part of the winner's entourage.

Alatas had also said earlier in the week that no first-echelon officials would be going to the ceremony.

Sources identified Belo's secretary, Father Domingos Sequira, and scholar Y.B. Mangunwijaya from Yogyakarta as among those who would be accompanying Belo to Oslo.

Abdurrahman Wahid, a Moslem scholar and chairman of the 30- million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama, has also been invited by the Nobel Committee to attend the ceremony. It is still not immediately clear whether Abdurrahman will go.

Apart from Oslo, Belo plans to travel to Stockholm as part of the Nobel ceremonies. Before returning to Indonesia, he will make a brief stop in Bonn to meet with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and to the Vatican to report on his award. (mds)