RI offers alternative peace plan
RI offers alternative peace plan
By Rikza Abdullah
ZAGREB (JP): Indonesia is proposing an alternative mechanism to bring about a peaceful settlement to the ethnic wars raging in the former Yugoslavia.
The mechanism, outlined by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas here on Monday, follows the format that Indonesia successfully used to help end the civil war in Cambodia in 1991.
It calls for meetings in two phases: initially involving the warring factions, and later an international conference involving the big powers.
Soeharto yesterday flew back to Jakarta at the conclusion of his three-day visit to Croatia which included the brief stop in embattled Sarajevo. The President, who earlier took part in the World Conference on Social Development in Copenhagen, is scheduled to land in Jakarta this morning.
The Indonesian peace plan for former Yugoslavia was conveyed by President Soeharto during meetings with Croatian leaders and with Bosnian leaders during his four-hour visit to Sarajevo on Monday, Alatas told reporters.
Alatas stressed that Indonesia's role would strictly be in facilitating the meetings. It would not become a mediator.
The point was hammered home once more by Soeharto during a banquet given in his honor on Monday night by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.
Soeharto said that as chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, he was urging the establishment of a new mechanism of negotiations among all parties involved in the conflicts to find comprehensive and permanent solutions. "The new mechanism includes the possibility of holding an international conference, the structure of which is adjusted to the needs required for the achievement of a fair and comprehensive solution," he said.
Elaborating on the proposal, Alatas said Indonesia, if requested, will host the negotiations and send envoys to the warring parties and provide other necessary facilities.
Facilitator
"But I want to emphasize that Indonesia is ready to act only as a facilitator, not as a mediator in the conflict."
The first stage of the meeting should involve the leaders of all the former Yugoslav republics: Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
They should discuss basic principles like peaceful coexistence and non-intervention in the other's domestic affairs, mutual recognition, and acceptance of internationally recognized borders, he said. Problems related to the rights of minorities should also be addressed, he added.
"When all these problems are resolved, we can go on to the next stage -- holding an international conference involving the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, Britain, the United States, Russia and France), countries neighboring the former Yugoslavian states, and countries that can contribute to the settlement."
"If they can accept these ideas, Indonesia will be ready to act as facilitator for such negotiations," Alatas said. "However, Indonesia will not impose these ideas on them."
Alatas was one of the architects of the Cambodian peace process which began in 1988 with the convening of an informal meeting of all Cambodian warring factions in Bogor near Jakarta. That meeting set the ball rolling and led to the international peace conference on Cambodia in Paris three years later.
Alatas said Indonesia feels obliged to propose solutions because the conflicts are still intense and cease-fires are fragile despite the presence of the UN peace missions and various resolutions by the United Nations and despite various proposals by the Security Council to end the war.
"If our ideas are not accepted, we will continue supporting Bosnia in its struggle against expansionism and supporting the proposals of the permanent members of the UN Security Council as long as they also support Bosnia."