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)