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)