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House tells govt to persuade Amsterdam to curb RMS

The House of Representatives’ commission on foreign affairs has asked the government to establish “serious diplomacy” with the Netherlands and persuade the country not to let Indonesian rebel movements grow there

Erwida Maulia and Lilian Budianto (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, October 14, 2010

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House tells govt to persuade Amsterdam to curb RMS

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he House of Representatives’ commission on foreign affairs has asked the government to establish “serious diplomacy” with the Netherlands and persuade the country not to let Indonesian rebel movements grow there.

The commission made the request Wednesday during a closed-door meeting with Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and State Intelligence Agency chief Sutanto. The legislators were seeking an explanation regarding President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s recent decision to cancel a visit to the Netherlands while his entourage was already on board his plane, shortly after he received news that a Dutch district court was to hold a trial session on the same day of his planned arrival in the Netherlands.

The trial was a response to a lawsuit filed by activists of the Republic of South Maluku (RMS) separist movement residing in the Netherlands, that demanded the Dutch government lift the President’s diplomatic immunity during his Dutch visit and have him arrested on charges of human rights violations; both of which were later rejected by the court.

Commission I member Effendy Choirie told The Jakarta Post after the lawmakers’ meeting with the foreign minister that it was time for the government to seriously improve its diplomatic moves, including by applying what he dubbed as a “multi-track diplomacy”.

“We’ve asked the minister and Yudhoyono to carry out serious diplomatic measures with the Netherlands, dissuading the country from letting groups such as the RMS act freely against Indonesia in foreign territory,” Effendy said. “The government should also establish dialogue with those groups, spurring their love for Indonesia. It should apply multi-track diplomacy.”

Effendy, from the National Awakening Party (PKB), said the government had hitherto been lacking such diplomacy, citing the Indonesian Embassy in the Netherlands  refusal to communicate with the RMS movement.

Roy Suryo, a lawmaker of Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, said all factions in the commission understood the President’s reasoning for canceling the visit. “We’ve heard their explanation and we, including the opposition parties, can understand. Yudhoyono decided to cancel the visit based on input from the defense attaché, the Defense Ministry, the National Intelligence Agency [BIN], Pak Marty and from our ambassador to the Netherlands,” he said.

Roy added it was a closed-door meeting based on BIN head Sutanto’s request. Echoing Roy’s statements, Effendy said the House supported the President’s decision. “Although we often disagree with the President’s policies, we don’t want him to be embarrassed in foreign countries by foreign citizens,” he said.

Nevertheless, Effendy added, lawmakers criticized the government for failing to collect “comprehensive” information regarding the situation in the Netherlands before Yudhoyono’s visit, resulting in him canceling the visit at the last minute although he had reportedly been dubious about it.

Responding to the lawmakers’ inquiry over the future prospect of the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and the Netherlands post visit cancelation, Marty told the Post over the phone, “The postponing may have caused short-term inconvenience, but both sides recognized that the bilateral relation would remain strong in the future.”

On Sunday, former Dutch senator from Groenlinks Party, Sam Pormer, who was visiting Ambon, Maluku, said Yudhoyono had been preposterous with his decision to cancel the Dutch visit as not even Maluku descendants in the Netherlands took RMS seriously.

 

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