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.