A rchive Date
[ 09-01-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Indonesia ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/01/09/9856-ap.html
Indonesian: don't mix disarming Iraq with regime change, let UN do it
Thu, January 9, 2003
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's foreign minister on Thursday said he asked his British counterpart for evidence that Iraq possesses biological, chemical or nuclear weapons and said his country opposes forcibly removing Saddam Hussein.
"We don't believe that there should be a mix between the need for disarming Iraq and regime change," Hassan Wirayuda said after meeting with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "These cannot be put together."
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country and its position on a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq is likely to influence the debate on the issue in the rest of the Islamic world.
Wirayuda said Indonesia supported deciding the issue through the UN Security Council and said his government wanted to allow the weapons inspection process to run its course.
"It is in line with Indonesia's hope and its position to go through multilateralism," he said.
Wirayuda said Straw responded to his request for evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but did not describe the response.
The meeting was part of a three-day tour Straw is making in Southeast Asia, in part to drum up support for possible military action in Iraq.
The UN ordered Iraq to dispose of any weapons of mass destruction it may be stockpiling.
The United States and Britain say they will use force if necessary to disarm him.
Iraq insists it has destroyed its biological and chemical weapons and halted its nuclear program.
In November, President Megawati Sukarnoputri made a veiled reference to U.S. policy on Iraq, warning that one country is setting the agenda for the rest of the world.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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