Indonesian Policy Attacked By N.Z.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30629, 21 December 1964, Page 11

Indonesian Policy Attacked By N.Z.

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

NEW YORK, December 20.

New Zealand on Friday accused President Sukarno of directing “volunteer” troops used by Indonesia in its “crush Malaysia” campaign. The accusation came in a hot debate in the General Assembly today as New Zealand and Malaysia attacked the use of the “volunteers.”

The criticism followed a statement by the Indo-

nesian delegate (Mr L. N. Palar) that “Indonesian volunteers are in what is regarded as Malaysian territory only by virtue of the fact that my Government does not recognise the sovereignty of that state.”

The New Zealand delegate (Mr F. H. Corner) accused the Sukarno Government of “directing and financing the volunteers.” He said the Indonesian newspapers had reported: “The supreme leadership of the volunteers is in the hands of the President. “The use of them is decided by the President. “Disability of the volun-

teers in the course of their duty will be compensated.” “This is the nature of the volunteers,” Mr Comer said. The dispute over the use of the “volunteers” arose when Mr Palar exercised his right of reply to statements earlier this week by New Zealand and Malaysia which condemned the Indonesian “Crush Malaysia” policy as open aggression. Mr Palar said the Indonesian Government was “supporting a freedom” by sending soldiers into Malaysia. The Malaysian delegate, Radhakrishna Ramani, retorted that Indonesia was indulging in “blatant military aggression” in Malaysia. “It cannot be justified by simply saying: ‘I don’t recognise your country,’” he said.

Mr Comer said the Indonesian delegate had altered the meaning of what had been said by the New Zealand Minister of Justice, Reuter reported. “The sole point of the New Zealand intervention was the argument that to maintain forces on the soil of another state, whether you recognise it or you don’t, and to use those forces as a pre-requisite for negotiations, cannot be reconciled with the charter of the United Nations,” said Mr Corner. New Zealand had not claimed there were preconditions to the Macapagal proposals as alleged by the Indonesian delegate, he said. Mr Ramani said that what had amazed him most was the comparison made between the Malaysian and Congo situations.

He could only envy “this special ability” to see such a parallel. “The Congo is a matter of internal rebellion, Malaysia is a matter of external aggression,” he said. The Indonesian Ambassador had said earlier that the Malaysian-Indonesian dispute was an “inevitable confrontation between the states which represent the old order of things and the states which we in Indonesia term the new emerging forces.”