S. Africa punishes Portugal

S. Africa punishes Portugal

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Agencies): South Africa has expelled
Portugal's ambassador over the leaking of a misdirected note from
President Nelson Mandela to his Indonesian counterpart, but
diplomatic ties remain intact, government sources said yesterday.

Two South African government sources confirmed a report that
Portuguese Ambassador Vasco Valente had last week been given 48
hours to leave the country.

It is the first time South Africa has expelled a diplomat
since 1994, when Mandela became the country's first
democratically elected leader.

The sources said Mandela wrote to Indonesian President
Soeharto in mid-July, asking him to release jailed East Timorese
rebel Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao as a first step towards
resolving the conflict there.

The letter was sent in error to the embassy of Portugal, East
Timor's former colonial power, and was neither returned nor
forwarded to the Indonesian Embassy.

Mandela's proposal was leaked to newspapers in Portugal before
Soeharto was made aware of it.

The letter was supposedly sent soon after Mandela returned
from a state visit in Indonesia, from July 14 to July 16. But
Soeharto did not receive the letter until Friday.

After the error was uncovered, Indonesian Minister of Foreign
Affairs Ali Alatas questioned why Portuguese officials did not
immediately return the letter which they knew was not meant for
them.

The South African sources said the incident did not
permanently damage relations with Indonesia or Portugal.

"This happened in terms of international diplomatic protocols,
which allow one country to object to a particular individual
without affecting diplomatic relations in any way," one of the
sources told Reuters.

"There has been a slight mistake on the part of one individual
and he has been asked to leave," said the other.

South African foreign ministry spokesman Pieter Swanepoel
declined to confirm or deny Valente's expulsion, saying: "We have
no comment because this has had an impact on our relations with a
third country."

Mandela's spokesman, Parks Mankahlana, said South Africa would
not comment on any aspect of the incident over the misdirected
letter, adding that it was already received by Soeharto and that
the peace process was on track.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, the South African Embassy also refused
to say whether the Portuguese ambassador was expelled.

"The South African Embassy in Jakarta is neither able to
confirm nor deny the reports," an embassy statement said.

Trying to avoid being misperceived as supporting one or the
other, the statement stressed that the South African government
"is eager to be seen as a neutral party by all those involved in
the current debates that are taking place on the East Timor
question".