U.S. seeks Indonesian's understanding of its war plans
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The United States appealed on Thursday for Indonesia's "understanding" if it indeed embarked on a course of military action in Iraq to disarm Saddam Hussein's regime of its weapons of mass destruction, as ordered by the United Nations.
U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce told a gathering of Indonesian editors that nobody wanted a war to take place, but that such a course of action could become inevitable should Saddam continue to defy the UN Security Council resolution ordering it to drop all chemical and biological weapons programs.
He was briefing the editors as a follow-up to the presentation delivered by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell at the Security Council on Wednesday giving evidence of Baghdad's weapons programs and its continued defiance of the Security Council Resolution No. 1441. Powell stated that, "time was running out" for Saddam before an international coalition, led by the United States, moved to disarm him by force.
Boyce stopped short of calling for Indonesia's support for war, sensing the still strong opposition here to an attack on a sovereign, predominantly Muslim nation.
While emphasizing Indonesian government support for UN Resolution No. 1441, he said he considered the United States and Indonesia to be on the same side, however the U.S. would be leading the coalition, and many Indonesians would be calling for an end to war.
"That's perfectly understandable."
While not fully expecting Indonesia to agree with the U.S. position, he hoped that at least the United States would be given a chance to explain its stance on the issue.
Boyce also noted with satisfaction that the U.S. plan to disarm Iraq was not being portrayed in Indonesia as a war against Islam, although many of the anti-war protests were launched by Islamic leaders and organizations.
Washington was fully aware of the concerns of anti-war protesters, mainly the possibility of heavy casualties among Iraqi civilians if the conflict started, he said.
Acknowledging that some casualties were inevitable in any war, he said the way in which the war was being planned in Washington, was to make every attempt to minimize civilian casualties and physical destruction, taking into account the need for Baghdad to rebuild the nation as soon as the war was over.
The ambassador said he also had been given assurances from the Indonesian government about the safety of American citizens and property in Indonesia if and when a war in Iraq began.
As the discussion was taking place inside Boyce's heavily- guarded residence in Jl. Taman Suropati in Menteng district, Central Jakarta, hundreds of protesting students were assembled outside.
Their target was not the U.S. ambassador, but the official residence of President Megawati Soekarnoputri a few hundred meters away, and their cause was not Iraq, but Megawati's economic policies.
"They're warming up for the anti-American protests," quipped one of the editors present at the meeting.