Asia Times: Wahid bolsters Indonesia's relations with US



	November 16, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Wahid bolsters Indonesia's relations with US
By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Indonesia's new president Abdurrahman Wahid heads for Japan Monday after a fence-mending trip to the United States that included a meeting with President Bill Clinton and visits to the headquarters of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

At a White House meeting Friday, Clinton said Washington was ''very encouraged'' by Indonesia's new status as the ''world's third largest democracy'' and pledged US support for continued economic and political reform.

Clinton, however, danced around the two questions that are uppermost in the minds of Indonesians at the moment - a possible independence referendum for Aceh province and Wahid's pledge - delivered to a US business audience Thursday night - to pardon former President Suharto if he is convicted of corruption.

And behind closed doors, the US president told Wahid that Washington would not restore military ties with Jakarta until some 200,000 East Timorese forcibly displaced to West Timor during the violence that followed the August 30 independence referendum were allowed to return home.

Speaking to reporters after emerging from the White House, Wahid appeared to take that message to heart. 'I assured President Clinton that...in East Timor, we will work very hard to ensure that the refugees from our side of Timor will go freely to their places,'' he said. ''Because of this, we have ordered the air force to prepare their planes to send those people, not through land, but by air from Kupang to Dili,'' East Timor's capital.

Wahid, popularly known in Indonesia as ''Gus Dur'', also received encouraging words from top officials at the IMF and the World Bank. The support of these bodies is considered critical to Jakarta's hopes of recovering from the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis which hit Indonesia harder than any other nation.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn accepted an invitation to travel to Indonesia next February and said he was ''very pleased'' by steps taken by the new government to resolve a major financial scandal which resulted in a suspension of some $2 billion in IMF and and World Bank assistance in September.

The Bank Bali affair involved the apparent diversion of some $80 million - to be used to help restructure Indonesia's banking system under an IMF rescue plan - to the then-ruling Golkar party and the campaign of former President BJ Habibie.

Wolfensohn said Wahid's efforts to clear up the affair, which have included the public release of a critical report by the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, ''will go a long way toward restoring confidence in the integrity of government - and also release much-needed financial support from the World Bank and other international institutions.''

Wahid also spoke with IMF Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer Friday in what was described as a ''good meeting.''

An IMF mission, which had been delayed due to both the Bank Bali affair and the violence in East Timor since mid-September, traveled to Jakarta this week. A spokesman told IPS that the Fund expects to conclude a new letter of intent by mid-December that will in turn pave the way for a new bailout package.

While the major purpose of Wahid's visit to Washington, which was only scheduled last week, was to restore economic assistance and investment, most of the questions directed toward the almost-blind, Muslim cleric were political.

Elected by parliament only three weeks ago, Wahid is already facing a potential crisis over Aceh, the oil- and gas-rich province where a long-standing insurgency faces some 40,000 Indonesian troops who have established a reputation for brutality and savagery.

Last week, more than half a million Acehnese, out of a total population of about four million, rallied in support of independence similar to that achieved by East Timor in August. Unlike East Timor, however, Aceh, located at the northern end of Sumatra, is one of Indonesia's richest provinces, and many analysts believe that its secession from Indonesia could bring about the country's disintegration.

Indonesia's powerful armed forces are reported to oppose any move that could lead to that result.

Wahid, who has pledged to travel to Aceh when he returns to Indonesia, told Clinton he felt the issue of a referendum can be resolved in the next few months. ''This thing cannot be done just in one night,'' he said, adding later that the Acehnese ''are our brothers...We negotiate with them.''

Clinton himself walked a fine line, insisting on the one hand that Washington had supported Indonesia's decision to hold a referendum for East Timor and, having given them the vote, ''that vote had to be respected.''

''On the other hand, we support the territorial integrity of Indonesia, and ...have to acknowledge that it's quite a challenging task to preserve a democracy (that is) so widespread and diverse.''

Asked to comment on Wahid's intention to pardon Suharto if he is convicted of corruption, Clinton noted that the decision ''is one for the Indonesian government to make.''

''I think every country has to decide how to resolve the tension between pursuit of a particular case and the desire for the reconciliation of people and (the desire) to go forward,'' Clinton said. ''That decision the president has to make, and we ought to support anything that he's trying to do to build democracy and to take Indonesia into the future.''

After leaving Washington, Wahid spent the weekend in Utah where he received hospital treatment for his poor eyesight.

In a further political development, the US State Department announced that US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke would visit Jakarta November 18-22. Accompanied by Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth, Holbrooke plans to meet Indonesian government and UN officials to discuss issues related to East Timor, a statement said.

(Inter Press Service)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.