Australia's Foreign Minister has defended his government's record of support for the Indonesian regime. Mr Alexander Downer is on a two-day visit to Ireland to promote trade and to discuss bilateral political issues.
Yesterday he was told by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, of Ireland's concern for human rights in East Timor, which Indonesia occupied in 1975. Mr Andrews also said Ireland supported self-determination for East Timor. Mr Downer also met the co-ordinator of the East Timor Ireland Solidarity campaign, Mr Tom Hyland, yesterday evening.
Mr Hyland said afterwards that they had "a good meeting. Both positions were outlined and I appreciate that the Australian Foreign Minister took 45 minutes out of his schedule to meet us".
Australia has strong business ties with Indonesia, and provides it with military training and weapons. Mr Downer said the history of East Timor was "a tragic history", and maintained that his government did more than any other to assist the people of Timor. "We are the biggest aid donor to East Timor. We provided Aus$5 million (£2.5 million) to East Timor in the course of the last year. We have been providing very active support to the United Nations Secretary General's efforts to resolve the differences between Portugal (Indonesia's former colonial power) and Indonesia over the status of East Timor." In addition, Australia had given money to the International Committee of the Red Cross to assist human rights monitoring and had contributed to the humanitarian programmes on East Timor. Prior to meeting Mr Downer, Mr Hyland said the Minister's statements represented "the worst abuse of the English language I've heard for a long time. It's ridiculous to say they are helping East Timor. They are doing more than any other government to support Indonesia. They are the only western country to have given de facto and de jure recognition to Indonesia's occupation of East Timor.
"They are training Indonesian soldiers in Australia and threatening to withdraw benefits from 1,400 East Timorese asylum seekers in Australia. Their position is just completely tied up with economic agreements with Indonesia."
Mr Downer also told Mr Andrews that Australia would support Ireland's attempt to be elected to the UN Security Council in 2000. Ireland is seeking one of two seats allocated to the Western European and Others (WEOG) group at the UN. Mr Downer and the Minister for the Arts, Ms de Valera, yesterday signed an agreement to encourage film co-productions between Irish and Australian film producers. This will allow co-producers to avail of the tax incentives currently on offer to producers in their respective countries.
Mr Downer, who addressed members of the Irish-Australian Business Association yesterday morning, said Ireland was "a very good place for Australian businesses to invest as a jumpingoff point for the European Union, and I think, increasingly, Irish companies see Australia as a very good jumping-off point into the Asia/Pacific region".
Today Mr Downer will visit some International Fund for Ireland projects being funded by the Australian government, and he will present Australia's 1998 contribution of £750,000 to the fund's chairman, Mr William McCarter.