Religious leaders urge govt action to stop Iraq war

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Religious leaders urged the government on Friday to take immediate and concrete action to stop United States-led attack on Iraq through the United Nations.

Solahuddin Wahid, the deputy chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization with 40 million members, said the government had to do more than just issue a statement deploring the war.

"The government must take real action rather than only deploring the attack," he said, adding that he hoped the war would end soon in order to prevent a major humanitarian crisis in Iraq.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri said on Thursday "the government and the people of Indonesia strongly deplore the unilateral action taken by the government of the U.S and its allies".

Solahuddin, who is also the deputy chairman of the National Committee on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said the government must actively urge the UN to continue its efforts to stop the war.

Goodwill Zuber, the secretary-general of Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Muslim organization, said the government must persuade other UN members to hold an emergency meeting to bring the war to an end.

"The President and her Cabinet must be more active in addressing this issue in the UN forum," he said, pointing out that many UN member countries and some permanent members of the UN Security Council opposed the war.

Goodwill, who called the war an act of aggression by the U.S. and its allies against Iraq, also urged the government to address the issue in the forum of the Non-Aligned Movement.

"The people are waiting for follow-up action to the government's recent statement against the aggression in Iraq," he said.

Both NU and Muhammadiyah are known as moderate Muslim organizations.

Nathan Setiabudi of the Indonesian Communion of Churches suggested that the government encourage the UN to address the issue.

"No single country has the right to attack others without approval from the UN, which is the most authoritative organization on earth to date," he said.

Solahuddin, Goodwill and Nathan also urged the government to prepare humanitarian assistance for the Iraqi people.

"Muhammadiyah will send humanitarian aid to the Iraqis soon," said Goodwill, whose organization has 30 millions members across the country.

Some analysts said Megawati's statement was sufficiently strong enough to send the U.S. a message of Indonesia's opposition to the war, and was stern enough to explain the government's stance to a domestic audience.

It was reported that U.S. President George W. Bush called Megawati on Thursday evening concerning the strike on Iraq.

Although there has been no official confirmation of the call, one of Megawati's aides said Bush called her at about 11 p.m. on Thursday.

The aide said the conversation was most likely related to the safety of U.S. interests here and not Jakarta's stance on the war, as Washington was already fully aware that Indonesia opposed the use of force in Iraq.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda neither denied nor confirmed the report, saying that the President had not informed him of any conversation with Bush.

"The President did not give me any information about the call, so I cannot say anything," Hassan said after meeting with Megawati on Friday.

And none of the officials in the Presidential Office would comment on the report, saying the President had not said anything regarding the call.

Megawati and Bush have had numerous telephone conversations, the latest occurring after the Oct. 12 Bali bombings.