---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- ANTARA, September 18, 1999 RI-Australia: PM Howard Ridiculed For Policies Against Indonesia Canberra, Sept 17 <ANTARA>-The Australian public has begun to censure the policies of Prime Minister John Howard on East Timor saying they had undermined the good relations with Indonesia. Former Australian Ambassador to Jakarta Richard Woolcott wrote in The Australian daily newspaper on Friday that the rellations between the two countries have suffered a setback for one generation. Now, the Indonesian and Australian societies have become alienated, Woolcott said. The irony was that it was the colaition government under John Howard that placed Indonesia among the four most important friendly countries to Australia in 1997, Woolcott said. The former ambassador said that he was quite down-hearted because of the latest developments as he had dedicated most of his career for the promotion of good relations between Australia and Southeast Asian countries. Woolcott said, he did not like the reports on atrocities by the pro-integration militia in East Timor. However, he stressed that the found the policies of the current Australian government more to his dislike. He claimed that the Southeast Asian countries no longer sympathized with the policies of the Australian government on East Timor. According to him, most of Southeast Asian countries were aghast with the pressures the Australian government has been exerting on behalf of the independence of East Timor. Woolcott maintained that the Howard government's stance reflects a combination between domestics pressures and the naive assumption that Australia would be able to safeguard its diplomacy. All of these would undermine the decades of work to place Australia as an Asian partner in accordance with the geopolitical realities, Woolcott noted. He said the readiness of Southeast Asian countries to join INTERFET was motivated more by their desire to help Indonesia, not because Australia had asked them. Security cooperation The foreign editor of The Australian, Greg Sheridan, regretted Howard's attitudes toward Indonesia saying that they had resulted in the abrogation of the security arrangement agreement between the two countries. According to Sheridan, the abrogation of the agreement was a great setback in regional cooperation an a significant loss to Australian security. According to Sheridan, all the security assets had come to nothing, and the latest development was no good to Australians. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating, who was involved in the signing of the security agreement in December 1995, pointed out that the Howard government had pulled Australia-Indonesia relations to a new record low. Keating said Howard's mistakes in handling relations to a new record low. Keating said Howard's mistakes in handling relations between the two countries would have some tragic consequences. Imcomptence Meanwhile, opposition leader Kim Beazley accused Howard of incompetence in handling the crisis in East Timor. Beazley said, Howard's statements on Indonesia had destroyed the good relations between the two countries. (U.LCB-01/ND-04/ND05/INT-NS/18:05/INT-AJM-00:40/NN01/00:49/TB02) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 23 Sep 1999 jam 11:35:08 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
