The Wall Street Journal

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Review & Outlook

The Wiranto Leak

Just possibly, a former general in Indonesia's military could become the next president of the country. But if former armed-forces chief Wiranto is elected leader of this key country in the war on terrorism, and decides to pay a visit to Washington -- which would not only be likely, but inevitable -- it could create a diplomatic embarrassment for the U.S.

That's because Mr. Wiranto, who is seeking the nomination of the Golkar party to contest presidential elections in July, is on America's visa watch list. This is already not a good way to make an ally, but adding further risk to the U.S. relationship with the world's largest Muslim nation is the manner in which Mr. Wiranto's status was revealed.

Mr. Wiranto was last year indicted by a special U.N. tribunal for crimes against humanity in East Timor, a follow-on to the U.N.'s involvement in East Timor's messy secession from Indonesia. The U.S. duly put him and several other current and former Indonesian military officers on the U.S. watch list, which means that visa applications must be reviewed, about six months ago.

But the State Department didn't bother to reveal this news until it was leaked to the Washington Post last month. That was one day after the retired general had held a press conference in Jakarta to discuss his candidacy for the presidency. Subsequent to the leak, U.N. prosecutors in East Timor, still dabbling in the now independent state's affairs, began seeking an arrest warrant against Mr. Wiranto.

The timing of all these events has prompted speculation about motives, not least because they occurred just as Mr. Wiranto was gaining traction as a serious contender for the Golkar nomination. U.S. diplomats in Jakarta have openly criticized Mr. Wiranto in the past, but American sources in the region tell us the U.S. had no role in the leak. Still, Golkar, the party of former strongman Suharto, will be tempted to accuse the U.S. of interfering in Indonesia's domestic politics.

To be sure, the long struggle in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975, casts no credit on Indonesia. Some 1,000 people were killed by pro-Indonesian militias at the time of the independence referendum arranged by the U.N. in 1999. But one could ask why the U.N. is still belaboring this issue at a time when Jakarta and Dili are trying to build a new relationship. While Mr. Wiranto once worked for a Suharto who was by no stretch of the imagination a great democrat, it is a bit of a stretch to believe that the general was solely responsible for the violence in East Timor, where a civil war had been raging over two decades.

East Timor President Xanana Gusmao and his foreign minister, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta, in fact oppose seeking retribution for the violence, believing this would be counterproductive when better relations with Jakarta is what Dili needs today. Indeed, Messrs. Wiranto and Gusmao have met twice to discuss reconciliation. The Sydney Morning Herald says Mr. Wiranto has even agreed to give testimony by video hook-up to a hearing on the violence, if judges in Dili are amenable.

Indonesia is on the front lines of the war on terrorism. Along with the U.S., it has suffered massive al Qaeda-linked suicide attacks. The U.S. can't afford to alienate any possible leader of this moderate Muslim nation, giving cause to extremists to incite animosity toward America. Most especially, it can't afford to follow the lead of U.N. officials trying to refight a war that has now mercifully ended. If Mr. Gusmao and Mr. Wiranto have lingering differences, they would seem to be perfectly capable of settling them independently of international interference.