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AAP, July 17, 2000
Irian Jaya is part of Indonesia, says Downer
By Peter Allport
SYDNEY, July 17 AAP - Australia will not support Irian Jayan
independence because any impetus towards secession could lead to
the bloody breakup of Indonesia, Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer said today.
However, Mr Downer urged Jakarta to proceed "with full regard to
human rights" in dealing with secessionist and sectarian strife
in the Indonesian provinces of Irian Jaya, Aceh and the Maluku
Islands.
Mr Downer told the Sydney Institute tonight that Indonesia lost
East Timor during last year's independence referendum because of
human rights abuses.
"Let me make this very clear: we accept that West Papua, or
Irian Jaya, is a part of Indonesia," Mr Downer said.
"For Australia to reflect on this ... and in the interest of
humanitarianism, the breakup of Indonesia would be an absolute
catastrophe.
"The number of lives that would be lost in that process would be
simply appalling," he said.
He said it was too late to redraw old colonial boundaries around
the world, instead advocating the development of multiracial,
tolerant societies within them.
"To try to redraw in 2000 the colonial boundaries in Asia, in
Africa, in Latin America, in the South Pacific, it just can't be
done," Mr Downer said.
"The second thing is we naturally enough urge on the
Indonesians, the Indonesian government, the Indonesian military,
the Indonesian authorities, that they manage the difficulties
they have in West Papua (Irian Jaya), in the Malukus, in Aceh,
with full regard for the human rights of those people.
"I have this theory about East Timor that if the Indonesians had
handled East Timor with sensitivity and full regard for the
human rights of the people of East Timor, they may have been
able to win the East Timorese over to the cause of becoming
integrated with Indonesia."
Mr Downer rejected rumours given currency in some quarters in
Jakarta that Australia sought to undermine Indonesian
sovereignty by supporting Irian Jaya's secessionist movement.
"Those breaches of human rights built and built and built
opposition to Indonesian rule in East Timor," Mr Downer said.
"Now East Timor is a very different proposition; it was never
part of the Dutch East Indies which made up Indonesia and did
not get incorporated into Indonesia until 1975.
"West Papua was part of the Dutch East Indies, the Malukus,
Aceh, and we certainly don't want to see any breaking up there,
but we do want to see those issues that President Wahid is
trying to do addressed with full regards to human rights," he
said.
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Didistribusikan tgl. 20 Jul 2000 jam 06:26:39 GMT+1
oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://www.Indo-News.com/
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