Nobel prize for Horta sends the wrong message: Alatas

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas says the decision to award exiled East Timor separatist leader Jose Ramos Horta the Nobel Peace Prize has sent the "wrong" message to Indonesia.

"Obviously, the (Norwegian Nobel) Committee has every right to give the award to anyone it wants," Alatas, who was in Hamburg, Germany on Friday night, told Antara.

"But if the committee chairman says the award is intended as a message or a signal to Indonesia then, as someone who has been involved in the dialog to find a settlement for the last 15 years, I think it has sent the wrong message."

"But we will see how it develops," said Alatas, who has represented Indonesia at the series of UN-sponsored talks between Indonesia and Portugal to settle the East Timor issue.

The Nobel Committee announced Friday that this year's peace prize is shared by Horta and East Timor Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo "for their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor".

Committee chairman Francis Sejersted told reporters at the Nobel Institute on Friday that "We do hope there is a message (in this award)... to the Indonesian government to change its policy."

In the Antara report, Alatas did not make any reference to Belo. However, he questioned the decision to give the award to Horta.

"What has been his contribution to East Timor?", other than being a tool of the Portuguese colonial government, who for a long time caused the East Timorese people to suffer, he was quoted as saying.

"He and his colleagues didn't bring peace to East Timor, but only conflicts, perpetual conflicts that cause suffering," he said.

If anyone has obstructed the efforts toward a settlement, it was Horta, he added.

"I really question the criteria used by the committee this time in awarding the Nobel prize," the minister said, comparing it to past decisions to award the prize to Palestine's Yasser Arafat and South Africa's Nelson Mandela, whom he described as figures who truly fought for their people and peace.

"If we compare with such figures, I find it difficult to understand how someone like Horta could have been chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize," he said.

He described Horta as a "political adventurer" who was kicked out by his own people 20 years ago.

"He no longer represents anyone except himself and a small group of people abroad. The majority of East Timorese decided on their independence 20 years ago when they chose to integrate (with Indonesia)," he said.

Alatas suspected there was a political motive behind the Norwegian committee's decision to give the award to Horta.

"If that is the case, and that seems to have been admitted, then it is regrettable that the decision this time was motivated or based on partisan politics.

"It is supporting something to achieve a certain political campaign," he added.

Here at home, Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono and Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman questioned yesterday the criteria used, but said in Bandung that Indonesia would not lodge any protests to the Nobel committee.

Soesilo said this issue should not be blown out of proportion. "But whether or not this has tarnished the government, it depends on from which angle you look at it."

Moerdiono, again stressing that he was speaking in his private capacity, said the decision to award Horta showed the ignorance of the situation in East Timor.

"This happens a lot. They don't know about a lot of things. They don't even know where East Timor is. When it was under Portugal, there were only 20 kilometers of roads. Now there are 2,010 kms of asphalted roads. The number of schools have also multiplied," he said.

Moerdiono said there are problems in East Timor. "Sure there are problems. And that is because we are developing (the territory). There aren't enough jobs, for example, because of our own success in the education front," he said.

Moerdiono questioned the awarding of Belo. "What is Bishop Belo's concept for peace? Really, I can't understand it," he said.

He dismissed the suggestion that the award would add to the diplomatic pressure on Indonesia regarding the East Timor question. "Why should we fear? The East Timor question was settled by the people themselves. What about the views of the 400,000-500,000 East Timorese people? Don't they count?

"The Nobel committee's decision showed disrespect for the East Timorese," he added.

In Dili, East Timor, Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares said yesterday that Horta, as leader of the Fretilin movement, was responsible for the murders, beatings and detentions of East Timorese people by his men in 1975.

"He was not involved directly, and probably didn't even give the orders. But as one of their leaders, he condoned the acts," Abilio was quoted by Antara as saying.

Fretilin was one of three parties in East Timor involved in the civil war which broke out in August 1975, the governor recalled.

Horta was Fretilin's foreign minister, but he went into exile in December 1975. "He did not defend the interests of the East Timor people. He even killed some before fleeing," Abilio said.

In Washington, the United States congratulated both recipients of the prize, saying it hoped the award would help efforts to settle problems in the Indonesian-ruled territory.

"We hope the action of conferring the award on them will lead to a resolution of the problems of East Timor, in which the United States does have an interest," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said, as quoted by Reuters.

The Australian government's reaction Friday was limited to a single sentence. "We congratulate the Nobel laureates with whom we share the desire for a peaceful East Timor," a spokesman for Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer said. (emb)