UN mission 'inappropriate'

UN mission 'inappropriate'

JAKARTA (JP): The government on Tuesday said the UN Security Council's decision to dispatch a mission to Indonesia next week following the killing of three UN relief workers in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, was at this time "inappropriate".

"We are of the opinion that the presence of the UN mission here would be inappropriate because Indonesia is still trying to earnestly resolve the problem," Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told journalists after a special Cabinet meeting to discuss the militia and refugee problems in west Timor.

It was the third such Cabinet meeting in five days.

"We think that the Indonesian government is currently trying to respond to the UN Security Council resolution ... we believe that we should be given trust, sovereignty and a chance to do what we have to do," Susilo said.

He added that the government would like to see "fair" treatment and that the sovereignty of the nation "should be respected".

"We are going to take diplomatic steps ... through our permanent representative to the UN, through our President, so that there will be good communication between the government and the UN," Susilo said.

A mob attacked the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Atambua last week allegedly following news that ex-militia leader Olivio Moruk had been murdered the previous night by unknown assailants.

Appalled by the brutal murder of three UN workers, the UN Security Council adopted on Friday a resolution that unanimously called on Jakarta to immediately disarm and disband the militias in West Timor.

Following the adoption of the resolution, the Council decided to dispatch a mission to Indonesia, and possibly East Timor, to discuss the implementation of the resolution.

Diplomats in New York were reportedly saying that the UN mission would convey a strong message to Jakarta to disarm and disband militias in the West Timor refugee camps and bring those responsible for the attacks to justice.

The news that Jakarta was unwilling to accept the UN mission was first expressed earlier in the day by Defense Minister Mahfud M.D.

He told reporters that the government will refuse to meet the UN mission when it arrives here next week.

"Today's Cabinet meeting has decided that the Indonesian government will not meet that mission because we already have our own programs," Mahfud replied when questioned about the matter by reporters immediately after the conclusion of the Cabinet meeting chaired by Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

President Abdurrahman Wahid did not attend the meeting.

"We will reject the presence of that mission. We will negotiate (with the UN) on our own, we will settle this on our own (because) we are a sovereign nation," he added.

But Mahfud said the government would meet with United States Defense Secretary William Cohen, who is scheduled to visit Indonesia by the end of the week, as his visit had been scheduled long before the violence in Atambua.

Nevertheless, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman later said the arrival of the UN mission was inevitable as the UN Security Council resolution had requested UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to report to the Council on the situation on the ground within a week of the resolution's adoption.

"Besides, I think the visit would be able to speed up efforts to resolve the problems that have so far been a bit neglected," Marzuki told The Jakarta Post.

He added that Jakarta could also use the visit to reiterate its demand that the international community be fully committed to finding a solution to the militia and refugee problems in West Timor.

Marzuki earlier said that a team of cabinet members would be dispatched to West Timor in the next few days to boost "the coordination" among government agencies on the ground and to monitor the latest situation in the area.

"The makeup of the team will be decided by President Abdurrahman Wahid during the next Cabinet meeting on Sept. 14," Marzuki said.

Separately, the head of the National Police information department Sr. Supt. Saleh Saaf on Tuesday said police had arrested six of the 10 suspects believed to be connected with the murder of ex-militia leader Olivio Moruk.

"Only one of the suspects is still at large, three others died in a brawl during the abduction of Olivio," Saleh said.

But Saleh reacted strongly when asked whether the suspects were ex-militia members or ordinary refugees in Atambua.

"There is no such thing as militia, they are all just refugees from East Timor," Saleh insisted.

Olivio is also one of the 19 suspects named by the Attorney General's Office for being involved in the violence in East Timor last year.

Saleh added that police were still looking for five people who had been named suspects in the killing of the three UN humanitarian workers. (jaw/byg)