WIRAJUDA RAISES BURMA, MIDEAST IN AMBASSADOR'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 000429

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/16/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM ASEAN XF BM ID
SUBJECT: WIRAJUDA RAISES BURMA, MIDEAST IN AMBASSADOR'S
FAREWELL CALL


Classified By: B. Lynn Pascoe, Ambassador. Reason: 1.4 (b, d)


1. (C) Summary. During the Ambassador's farewell call on
February 13, Indonesian Foreign Minister Wirajuda said he was
pressing ASEAN to form a three-country "troika" (Indonesia,
the Philippines, and Singapore) to re-engage Burma. The
Ambassador questioned the efficacy of ASEAN's dialogue with
Burma to date. On the Middle East, Wirajuda said he had
brought a "message of unity" on his recent travel to Lebanon,
Syria, and Palestine, and he confirmed that he is pursuing a
meeting in Jakarta between Hamas and Fatah to promote a
national unity government. End summary.

Burma
--------------


2. (C) Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda raised
the subject of Burma during the Ambassador's February 13
farewell call. Wirajuda said that in the wake of the January
12 U.N. Security Council vote, ASEAN is reevaluating its
approach to Burma. Since last July, he said, ASEAN had
"washed its hands" of the problem, meaning that it would
neither press the regime nor defend it in international fora.
The UNSC vote had changed matters, Wirajuda said. Despite
the fact that the resolution had failed, Burma was unnerved
that it was in the international spotlight and may now be
more willing to open discussion with ASEAN. This would
enable Burma to avoid losing face in another confrontation
with the United Nations. Wirajuda claimed that at the
January 9 - 15 ASEAN summit in Cebu, there had been talk of
creating an ASEAN "troika" to engage Burma. This troika
would consist of Indonesia (as UNSC member),Singapore, and
the Philippines (as future and current ASEAN chairs).
Wirajuda claimed that shortly after the vote, the Chinese
foreign minister had urged him to get ASEAN to do more with
Burma. Wirajuda also said he had urged his Indian
counterpart not just to promote its trade and energy
interests in Burma, but to press for reform as well. The
Indians, Wirajuda said, had not "replied directly."


3. (C) The Ambassador pointed out that ASEAN had tried a
variety of approaches to Burma in recent years, none of which
had been successful. The issue, he said, was as much
identifying an outcome as a format for engagement. He asked
what ASEAN seeks to accomplish in its dialogue with Burma,
regardless of the format it chooses. Wirajuda said that
following their visit to Rangoon in March 2006, he and
President Yudhoyono had concluded that the military was
insecure about its position in any reformed Burma. Wirajuda
recalled that during the Soeharto era, the Burmese regime had
been interested in the "dual function" role of the Indonesian
military as a possible paradigm for reform. Suharto's New
Order was less repressive than Burma's regime at the time,
and the Burmese had even sent a delegation to Indonesia to
examine how it worked. "But then we surprised them by
reforming," Wirajuda said, describing this episode as still
relevant. A "dual function" role for the Burmese military
could be introduced for a limited period of perhaps five
years in Burma as a transitional arrangement to a more
democratic system, Wirajuda suggested. He added that Senior
General Than Shwe would probably not be on the scene five
years from now in any case, which would presumably ease the
transition.


4. (C) Wirajuda said that Burma tends to trust Indonesia
because of similar historical experiences. Both countries
had fought for their independence, and had struggled to
maintain national unity despite ethnic and regional
diversity. Unlike Thailand, he said, Indonesia does not have
commercial or other interests in Burma.

Mideast
--------------


5. (C) The Ambassador asked for a readout of Wirajuda's
February 3 - 5 trip to Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine.
Wirajuda said that he had made the "message of unity" his
overarching theme. The region is torn by multiple conflicts,
in contrast to Southeast Asia. In Lebanon, Wirajuda said he
had been deeply concerned about tensions between the
government and the various armed factions. Everyone was
talking about dialogue, he said, but there were clearly
conflicts simmering just beneath the surface. Despite
Syria's protestations that these were Lebanese internal

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affairs, it is clear that Syria is still influencing events
and will intervene if armed conflict breaks out.


6. (C) In Palestine, Wirajuda said he had pressed Hamas to
form a national unity government with Fatah. He added that
the Syrians told him that they had urged Hamas to do this as
well. Wirajuda had also told Hamas that even if it rejected
the Oslo and Sharm al-Sheikh peace frameworks, it should at
least be open to the Arab peace proposal.


7. (C) Foreign Minister Wirajuda said that he believed
Indonesia could be an honest broker in hosting a conference
between the two Palestinian factions, and he would be happy
to discuss this initiative with the Secretary in March. He
added that the Secretary is still interested in Indonesia's
initiative on Iraq. The Ambassador asked for Wirajuda's
assessment of Egypt's role in the process, noting that in the
past the Egyptians had cast themselves in the role of the
Palestinians' "big brothers." Regional Arab players,
Wirajuda, had become part of the Palestinian problem.
President Abbas, he said, was "tired of Arab politics," and
"likes Asian Muslims." Wirajuda said that his proposal to
host a Palestinian conference had the support of the OIC
Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who was recently

SIPDIS
visited Indonesia.
PASCOE