Attachment G.

US and Australia warn on suppression of separatists 

SMH Date: 30/6/01

By Hamish McDonald, Foreign Editor

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 isno 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, ratherthan relying on suppression.

"Suppression might work in the short term but tends to exacerbate the

problem over time."

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© 2002 The Diary of Online Papua Mouthpiece