RI pushes forward with peace plan
RI pushes forward with peace plan
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will press on with its proposal to end the civil war in the former Yugoslavia despite deteriorating conditions in the field, senior diplomat Nana Sutresna said yesterday.
Nana told reporters after meeting with President Soeharto that Indonesia is ready to move on to the next stage of consolidating its initiative, having conveyed the plan to the warring parties and some of the major powers.
"Almost everyone gave a positive response ... Some even gave their a 100 percent support," said Nana, whom Soeharto has assigned to pursue the plan on his behalf. Nana is also the chief executive assistant to President Soeharto in the head of state's capacity as chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
"They see the President's initiative as an objective and realistic approach. They see that we have no intention of mediating in the conflict. We're only helping the conflicting parties to come to a meeting point," he said.
Soeharto's peace initiative was first broached with the leaders of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina when he traveled to Zagreb and embattled Sarajevo in March. He subsequently sent Nana to tour the other former Yugoslavia republics and the capitals of major powers, including Germany and Russia, to discuss the plan.
The initiative calls for two conferences. The first one is to involve only the conflicting parties in order to try to resolve their differences. The second is to be an international conference bringing in the superpower and neighboring countries to endorse the agreements.
Soeharto also suggested the formation of a confederation among the former states of Yugoslavia.
The Indonesian proposal already has the endorsement of the 112-member NAM, Nana said.
Preconditions.
He explained that unlike the other peace initiatives tried in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, the Indonesian plan sets no preconditions.
"We're only telling them (the conflicting parties) that they should get together. Whatever it is that they want to discuss is up to them.
"Of course this doesn't mean that we're not going to study the problem. We have to study their respective positions and the prospect of meeting points. This is what we're looking for now."
Nana warned the public, including the press, against dismissing the proposal too quickly. He pointed out the long and arduous process Indonesia went through to help ensure peace in Cambodia.
"Remember Cambodia. In the beginning, many people jeered us. Not only the warring parties, but even some people here at home asked `What's the use?'. But we continued.
"To reach the first Jakarta Informal Meeting in Bogor, we bent over backwards behind the scene," he said, referring to the 1988 conference that brought the warring Cambodian factions together for the first time since the civil war began in the late 1970s.
The Cambodian peace agreement was signed at an international conference in Paris four years after the Bogor meeting.
"This is a very complicated problem that requires our patience and your prayers," Nana said of the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
He reiterated the recent remarks by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, who stressed that "Bosnia needs concrete action and not beautiful language and resolutions." (emb)