Hamish McDonald – Senior United States and Australian officials yesterday joined in an unusually direct warning to Jakarta against trying to suppress secessionists in Aceh and Irian Jaya by force. The US State Department's director of policy planning, Mr Richard Haass, also called for accountability by the Indonesian military, or TNI, for past actions in counter-insurgency operations and tighter control on present activity.
The head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Ashton Calvert, warned against "suppression" as a strategy in Irian Jaya, saying it would lead to human rights abuses and a confrontation with the international community.
The remarks, at a Sydney University conference on the US-Australian alliance sponsored by the two governments, come amid hundreds of civilian casualties in recent weeks as Indonesian forces try to crush the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, in the northern Sumatran province, and secessionist leaders in Irian Jaya face sedition charges.
Dr Haass said that while Jakarta was "paralysed" by moves to impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid in August, the peripheral areas like Aceh, the Malukus, Irian Jaya and parts of Kalimantan continued to raise serious concern.
"No matter who is president of Indonesia come August, Jakarta will have to come to grips with the problems on the periphery , as political issues and not just as security problems," Dr Haass said. "There is no military answer to the challenge posed by the GAM in Aceh or by separatists in Papua [Irian Jaya].
"Decentralisation is a step in the right direction, but Jakarta will ultimately have to accommodate at least some provincial as well as district level ambitions for self-government. Authorities in Jakarta will also have to make real progress in reforming the Indonesian military. A reformed TNI could be an important institution for promoting political cohesion in Indonesia."
Dr Haass, whose repeated use of the "Papua" name chosen by secessionists for Irian Jaya will irk some in Jakarta political circles, said the political solution had to include self-rule and devolution of political authority and accountability.
"There's got to be accountability for past actions, and there's got to be control over present and future actions by the security forces." Dr Calvert, Canberra's chief diplomat, said Australia was "totally sincere" in wanting the territorial integrity of Indonesia to hold, which was "patently in our national interest".
Using the official name Irian Jaya rather than Papua, he said the situation there was better known in Australia because of proximity than were events in Aceh, but said he supported Dr Haass's message.
"It is important to set in train processes which are convincing to local people, that dialogue and a joint search for devolution and some degree of regional autonomy is what the central government wants, rather than relying on suppression. "Suppression might work in the short term but tends to exacerbate the problem over time."