Alatas calls for emergency meeting

CAMBODIA CRISIS

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INDONESIA’S Foreign Minister Ali Alatas yesterday called for an emergency meeting of Asean foreign ministers to discuss the conflict in Cambodia.

“There is a need for the foreign ministers to discuss the situation there,” he said.

He said he was trying to contact Malaysian Foreign Minister, Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the current Asean chairman, on the possibility of holding such a meeting.

He said that any Asean agreement on Cambodia would come from a consensus between member countries.

Mr Alatas stressed that Indonesia would not “act on its own initiative” to help diffuse tensions unless Cambodia’s two co-Premier’s requested Jakarta’s help.

“Cambodia is a sovereign country and the problem there now is an internal one between two parties. We won’t move in unless they ask us to,” he said.