RI calls for calm in hanging rift
RI calls for calm in hanging rift
JAKARTA (Agencies): Indonesia, as a self-styled "older brother", has called for "cooler heads" to ease rising tensions in the diplomatic row between fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members Singapore and the Philippines.
"We regret that this issue has evoked such strong emotions on the Filipino side, thus causing tensions in Filipino-Singaporean relations," Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas told the House of Representatives late on Wednesday evening.
When asked by legislators about what actions Indonesia, as an "older brother", could take to diffuse the situation, Alatas replied that there was not much that Jakarta could do.
The minister expressed hope that "cooler heads will prevail" in the near future.
Tensions between the two countries have escalated since last Friday's hanging of Filipino maid Flor Contemplation, who was convicted by a Singaporean court of a 1991 double murder.
The hanging has sparked a major diplomatic row with Philippines President Fidel Ramos recalling his country's ambassador to Singapore on Wednesday, prompting Singapore to recall its ambassador to Manila for consultations.
Manila canceled official visits and warned its nationals not to travel to Singapore after the latter rejected appeals from Ramos to spare Contemplacion.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also called on Singapore and the Philippines, yesterday, to contain the escalating row.
"We hope that the Philippines' warning that it might break diplomatic ties with Singapore will not come to pass," Badawi said.
Badawi said the countries of ASEAN -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- should retain good relations, which are mutually beneficial for all six members.
Meanwhile in Manila, Philippine diplomats yesterday told a senate inquiry that Contemplacion had admitted to committing the double murder for which she was hanged and that she had never recanted.
Consul-general Elizabeth Buensuceso said she had visited Contemplacion in prison nine times and the 42-year-old mother of four had never retracted her confession that she killed another Filipino maid and a three-year-old Singaporean boy.
The inquiry into the Contemplacion case is part of a broader review of the Philippines' overseas employment program, which has come into the spotlight in the wake of the execution.
Later yesterday, a presidential commission which Ramos created to examine the circumstances surrounding Contemplacion's execution was scheduled to begin hearing witnesses.
President Ramos has threatened to break off ties completely with Singapore if the inquiry finds that Contemplacion was unjustly hanged.
"She admitted before us she did it," said Buensuceso, who was based in Singapore when the crimes were committed in 1991.
Ambassador Alice Ramos, who returned to Manila on Wednesday, told the inquiry she was with Contemplacion's children during their last two prison visits before her execution.
She said she never heard Contemplacion say she was innocent, in contrast to the children's claims.
Filipino diplomats said tough measures by Ramos were partly the result of his anger at the tone of a Singaporean protest delivered on Tuesday.
Singapore had expressed outrage at the burning of a Singaporean flag by protesters in the southern Philippines and demanded that those responsible be brought to justice.
The diplomats said the crisis was one of the most serious between members of ASEAN since it was formed 28 years ago.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Roberto Romulo told the inquiry that diplomatic ties between the two ASEAN partners would continue despite some discomfort.
"Diplomatic relations will continue. They are strained right now between two close friends in the region but it has to be resolved."
The Singaporean government expressed hope yesterday that its row with the Philippines over the hanging of Contemplacion would not rupture bilateral ties.
"We believe relations between ASEAN countries can endure. Relations are never problem free. Bilateral ties always make a complex web of political and economic relations," a foreign ministry spokesman told AFP. (mds)
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