JAKARTA, Feb 20 Kyodo The Indones...

JAKARTA, Feb 20 Kyodo

The Indonesian direction on Friday proposed the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Peacekeeping Force by means of 2012 to resolve the member countries' internal conflicts comprehensively and peacefully.

The proposal was submitted during a one-day ASEAN senior officials' meeting (SOM) according to Makarim Wibisono, director general for Asia, Pacific and Africa affairs at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

He said the proposal was a follow-up of the Declaration of ASEAN Concord 2 popularly known as Bali Concord 2 signed at leaders of the 10-member assign places to on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last October.

subject to the declaration, the leaders press outed a commitment to establish an integrated ASEAN community at 2020 comprising the conceptions of an ASEAN Security Community, an ASEAN Economic Community and an ASEAN Social and Cultural Community.

Wibisono refused to move into details on the proposal, saying ''intensive consultations are still straited by the ASEAN member countries with related agencies in their respective countries'' before being brought to another meeting in the central Java city of Yogyakarta onward May 14.

A draft of the so-called ASEAN Security Community Plan of Action, obtained by dint of Kyodo News, detailed the timetable of the propos establishment of the peacekeeping force as well as the time frame of other political and security activities to be taken from 2020.

The plan of action comprises six component parts -- political development, shaping and sharing of norms, conflict prevention, conflict resolution, post-conflict peace building and an implementing mechanism.

''It is essential that any conflict involving the countries of the region shall be resolv in a peaceful way and to the satisfaction of all parties concerned'' the draft said upon the conflict resolution component

''For this intent ASEAN shall activate and strengthen its dispute adjustment mechanism in the political and security areas, expand a regional peacekeeping arrangement, and consider the establishment of supporting institutions to facilitate efforts to confirm conflicts,'' it added.

According to the draft, to perform the operations indicated in a regional peacekeeping arrangement, ASEAN member countries shall first aid technical cooperation with the United Nations and relevant regional organizations in order to benefit from their expertise and experiences from 2006

through 2010, it is expected that a network among the countries' peacekeeping center will have been appoint up aiming to conduct joint planning, training and sharing of experiences with a view to establishing an ASEAN Peacekeeping Center

''By that time, we will essay to harmonize the peacekeeping forces from all member countries because generally they have different uniforms, different training and in such a manner on,'' Wibisono told reporters.

Then, an ASEAN Peacekeeping Force with a standby arrangement and its deployment mechanism will hopefully be established by means of 2012, the draft said.

Wibisono said other ASEAN member countries have supported Indonesia's idea, if it were not that they have not reached an agreement forward the timetable.

''They said an explicit timetable is unnecessary because of the ASEAN Security Community's sustainable objectives and the different conditions of each member country'' he said.

''This idea is just for efficiency and a standby mechanism for a like reason when a conflict happens, for example in Indonesia's Aceh or in the southern Philippines, we can quickly expand neutral forces to the conflict areas,'' he added.

in subordination to the conflict resolution component, the draft also said, ASEAN shall establish a list of eminent bodily forms who may serve in an Eminent [i]role[/i]s Group to provide advice and opinion in settling disputes by the agency of 2006.

Meanwhile, to stop conflict, the draft said, ASEAN member countries shall issue publications in succession strategic assessment of the security environment, defense policies and other security issues, as it is as standardized defense white papers and equivalent documents from 2005

They shall also evolve an ASEAN early warning scheme based on an existing mechanism to hinder the occurrence and escalation of conflicts at 2008.

To combat terrorism, ''harmonization of relevant laws and regulations with a view to strengthening regional capacity to reckoner terrorism'' shall be done according to 2007, the proposed draft said.

ASEAN arranges Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group