RI priest slams govt Nobel prize stance

SEMARANG (JP): A prominent community leader in Yogyakarta has criticized Indonesia for its callow response to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to East Timorese separatist leader Jose Ramos Horta.

Y.B. Mangunwijaya, a Catholic priest and prominent literary figure, said Indonesia should have accepted the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision gracefully.

"As a nation with character, it would be unsuitable for us to abase the jury which selected the recipients, because it is really an institution with international credibility," said Mangunwijaya, also known as Romo (Father) Mangun.

He urged the nation to refrain from petty actions such as making spiteful statements against the Nobel Committee.

Horta and Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo were announced as winners of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize last week.

Jakarta reacted strongly to Horta's selection, with senior government officials questioning the committee's selection criteria.

Mangunwijaya commended the government for refraining from making an official statement on the matter, but regretted that officials had made unflattering remarks about the Nobel Committee and berated Horta's selection.

He said the statements could boomerang and create a negative international opinion of Indonesia. He pointed out that Indonesia could be perceived as being like the old Soviet Union, which griped over the Nobel Prize of novelist Boris Pasternak.

The awarding of the Nobel Prize for literature to Pasternak in 1958 aroused so much suspicion in the old Soviet regime that the writer had to refuse it.

"If the government and high-rank officials here take an antagonistic attitude towards the Nobel Prize, it could drag Indonesia's name down to the level of those countries which have balked over their citizens receiving the award," he said.

He doubted suggestions that the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Horta was "contrived", saying that the jury members were not people who would resort to such behavior. He also pointed out that the selection involves a lengthy process.

In Dili, East Timor, the chorus of indignation has continued, with the chairman of the provincial legislature, Antonio Freitas Parada, accusing Horta of being behind fence-jumping incidents at foreign embassies in Jakarta.

Eighty-nine Timorese youth have received asylum in Portugal after breaking into several embassies in Jakarta since September 1995. (har/03/mds)