Ruslan calls Dutch book 'slanderous'

Ruslan calls Dutch book 'slanderous'

JAKARTA (JP): Former foreign minister Ruslan Abdulgani has
denounced two Dutch historians as slanderous for accusing him in
a book of passing on vital information to the Dutch government
during the Indonesian diplomatic and military campaigns to win
Irian Jaya from the Netherlands in the 1950s.

"This is character assassination. The book is trash... the
story is an extraordinary lie," Ruslan told The Jakarta Post by
phone on Saturday.

Ruslan said he had not read Villa Maarheeze. De Geschiedenis
van de Inlichtingendienst Buitenland (Villa Maarheeze. The
History of the Netherlands Foreign Intelligence Service) written
by Dr. Bob de Graaff and Dr. Cees Wiebes, but was aware of the
content when Dutch journalists called him last week to comment on
the book, which was launched in Amsterdam on Friday.

"The authors never wrote to me or contacted me. I don't know
them," said Ruslan, who was foreign minister in 1956-1957.

He said he had met with Dutch foreign minister Joseph Luns
during the Suez Canal conference in London. "He refused to shake
hands with me. He was very anti-Indonesian and anti-Sukarno."

He said the sinking of the Indonesian submarine in the Arafura
sea was not caused by a leak of information but because the
Indonesian vessel was smaller than those the Dutch had.

Ruslan said the only occasion when he was approached by the
Netherlands was in 1948 when he was arrested in Yogyakarta by the
Dutch colonial government. The officer became very upset "after I
bluntly rejected his offer," he said.

Ruslan said he never visited the Netherlands while serving as
foreign minister. "I frequently visited the country after West
Irian fell into our hands, because I had a lot of friends there."
(prb)