Indonesia, Australia pact to smooth prickly ties

Sengigi (Indonesia), Nov 13: Indonesia and Australia will sign a treaty today aimed at smoothing ties through greater security cooperation, and underlining support for Jakarta's sovereignty over restive provinces.

Indonesia tore up a defence pact with Canberra seven years ago when Australia led an international force into East Timor to restore order after the territory voted to break from Jakarta.

The new security treaty was almost scuppered earlier this year when Canberra granted protection visas to 43 Papuan asylum-seekers who claimed they were being persecuted at home.

Australian opposition politicians and non-government groups fear the pact, which requires both countries not to support separatists, will give Indonesia a free hand to suppress groups seeking Papuan independence, something Canberra has denied.

Jurgen Haacke, an expert on security and politics in Southeast Asia at the London School of Economics, said the drawn-out negotiations indicated sensitivities on both sides.

''I see it as an important development to the extent it is likely to highlight and reinforce existing security cooperation, while also serving to reassure Indonesians that Australia fully supports its neighbour's territorial integrity.'' Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson pledged on Sunday the new agreement would not lead to his country's intelligence being used against Papuan separatists.

He said the treaty, due to be signed by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda at a resort area on Indonesia's Lombok island, would bring stronger anti-terrorism cooperation and joint naval border patrols, and would formalise military exchanges and training.

The document also opens the door to cooperation in civilian nuclear research and Australian sales of uranium to Indonesia.

Bomb Attacks Drive Cooperation

Concern over bomb attacks by Islamic militants has already been driving greater police and intelligence cooperation.

Bomb attacks on nightclubs in the Kuta area of the island of Bali in 2002 killed more than 200, including 88 Australians.

Australia has also courted Indonesian support to discourage asylum seekers and sees cooperation as crucial in its efforts to stop people-smugglers sending crowded boats to Australia.

Arief Budiman, professor of Indonesian studies at Melbourne University, said it was a sensible move by Canberra to seal the pact despite some reservations over the Papua issue.

''At present, if Australia is concerned about the way Jakarta treats the Papuan people, it is better that Australia raises it as a human rights issue, not as a justification to support an independence struggle of these Papuan people.'' Indonesia's foreign minister told reporters last week the pact did not specifically say Australia rejected Papuan independence, but that the issue was implicit in its wording.

Wirajuda described in July ties between his sprawling, developing nation and its Western-style southern neighbour as having ''a great deal of calm beneath a stormy surface''.

Reflecting how importantly Canberra rates ties, Australia's embassy in Jakarta is now its biggest mission in the world.

But Fachry Ali, an Indonesian political analyst, questioned the need for a bilateral security agreement at all, even with concerns on both sides over terrorism and the Papua issue.

''The main issue should be on economic cooperation, but why is this on security cooperation?''

Reuters