RI tells Australia to quit supporting separatists

RI tells Australia to quit supporting separatists

Agence France-Presse, Canberra

Indonesia urged the Australian government on Monday to crack down
on locally based supporters of independence groups in the
provinces of Papua and Aceh.

Indonesian charge d'affaires in Canberra, Imron Cotan, also
told a parliamentary inquiry into Australia's relations with
Jakarta that Australian aid money was being used by aid groups to
support Papuan separatists.

"I ... regret the fact that there have been a handful of
people in Australia who persistently fan the separatist
sentiments, especially in Papua, using various pretexts," Cotan
said.

"The move would definitely run the risk of prolonging the
conflicts."

Indonesia introduced special autonomy laws for Aceh and Papua,
which grant local populations in the two provinces a greater
measure of self-government, to undermine independence groups
fighting for complete separation from Indonesia.

But the packages have not discouraged separatist rebels in
Aceh, forcing Indonesia to recently deploy thousands of troops to
the restive province in a bid to crush the 5,000 fighters of the
Free Aceh Movement.

Cotan said Prime Minister John Howard had given Indonesian
President Megawati Soekarnoputri an undertaking that Australian
aid money would not be used to fund separatist groups when the
two met in February last year.

Australian ministers also agreed in March to investigate any
evidence that funding from the overseas aid agency AusAID was
being used by aid groups to support independence activists in
Papua.

Cotan said Jakarta was preparing a dossier on non-government
organizations in the province for the government to act against
"one or two" Australian-based groups suspected of supporting
separatists in Papua.

"Previously we have identified one or two," he said.

"I do not want to single out names here, but there are at
least two organizations known to (be) engaged in that unlawful
activity."

The Australian Council of Trade Union's aid agency, Union Aid
Abroad, or APHEDA, has previously drawn Indonesian ire and its
annual report states the agency "campaigns in support of
independence in West Papua".

APHEDA, through AusAID, gets 70 percent of its funding from
the government.

Cotan said it was in Australia's own security interests to
discourage separatists and support Indonesia's territorial
integrity.