Future peace institute won’t violate non-interference principle: Marty

Dina Indrasafitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 05/06/2011 10:08 PM A | A | A | - Klipping the Jakarta Post

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said that the plan for the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation was unlikely to breach the organization’s principle of non-interference.

“We don’t think the institution would contradict the concepts of sovereignty and non-interference because the institution’s concepts have been anticipated in ASEAN’s politics and security pillars,” he said Friday in Jakarta.

He was refereeing to the pillars stated in a 2003 ASEAN meeting in Bali, when member nations saw a declaration of an ASEAN community to be set upon three pillars: political and security cooperation, economic cooperation and socio-cultural cooperation

Indonesia, the current ASEAN chair, is scheduled to host the 18th ASEAN summit. Preceding the summit, slated to begin on Saturday, are a number of meetings, including the ASEAN Politics and Security Community meeting and the Foreign Minister’s meeting.

One of Indonesia’s inputs for ASEAN has been the establishment of the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

Marty said that the planned institute was a non-governmental initiative.

“This is part of the effort by the Indonesian government and by ASEAN to complement various instruments to prevent and settle conflicts, should they occur. In other words, not all [efforts] should be in the intergovernmental form. We can benefit from the institute to be established.” he said.

Two ASEAN members – Cambodia and Thailand – are currently engaged in an unsettling series of violent territorial clashes with each other, with the latest incident occurring last month.