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Humanitarian intervention:
INDONESIA OBJECTS UN`S STANCE
Wednesday, October 13, 1999/2:07:00 PM New York, Oct 13 (ANTARA) - Indonesia can not accept the idea of the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, which supports international intervention in "humanitarian affairs" without the consent of the respective countries. "The United Nations should respect the sovereignty of its members countries," Hazairin Pohan, an Indonesian representative, said before the UN 54th General Assembly`s plenary session here on Tuesday while discussing the UN secretary general`s report on its activities. According to the Indonesian diplomat, the UN experience in maintaining peace through intervention in a country often has achieved uncertain and dangerous results. "Without an agreement from the respective countries in taking the decision in the UN Security Council (UNSC), the UN will loose its neutrality and would be accused of having violated national sovereignty," he said. According to Pohan, Indonesia can not accept the implication of the intervention into a country`s sovereignty, as this would make the UNSC lose its confidence in implementing its function. "Indonesia rejects the UN secretary general`s idea to remove the sovereignty principle only because the UN seeks a pretext for intervention, which in fact is carried out selectively and does not take the side of developing countries; yet the principle (of siding with developing countries) is the basis for the UN`s establishment," Pohan added. He said the UN disfunction in humanitarian affairs is not a result of a disabled UN Charter, but from five aspects: lack of political will, UNSC disfunction, selectively implemented decisions, media/press misinterpretation, and lack of funds. Therefore, he said, Indonesia calls on all the nations to respect the principle of a nation`s sovereignty, as without it, the UN can not stand and fight with the small and weak countries against the strong and big countries. On the UN operation, Indonesia admitted such an issue is facing new and complex obstacles. Indonesia has asked the UN secretary general to pay attention to the fact that almost all UN peace operations are held in developing countries, and that most of the forces are from developing countries. Therefore, he said peace-keeping operations should function based on impartiality, and the use of cruelty is only for self-defense. "If the UN force is seen as a partisan, they won`t get support from the warring parties. And without such support, the UN peace-keeping force would only be the belligerents," he added. With the current transformation of the UN mission from a peace-keeping to the multi-dimensional mission in relation with recent international developments, Indonesia urges the UN to review and set up a new formula based on UN experience in the field. (U.LNY-01/NN-04/13/10/99 10:58/INT-TA/nn02) 1310991401 NNNN |
