Indonesia proposes Southeast Asian peacekeeping force

Indonesia has proposed the formation of a Southeast Asian peacekeeping force that could one day help settle disputes such as those in Aceh and the southern Philippines.
The proposal came at a Jakarta meeting of senior officials from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the Indonesian foreign ministry's acting director general for Asean co-operation, Marty Natalegawa, told AFP Saturday.
"What we are saying is Asean countries should know one another better than anyone else and therefore we should have the option for Asean countries to take advantage of an Asean peacekeeping force to be deployed if they so wish," Natalegawa said.
"This is just the first preliminary discussion on this," he said. The two-day meeting was to end Saturday.
One of the unanswered questions is whether the peacekeeping force would be available for operations outside of the region, for example as part of a UN force, he said.
The proposal for a peacekeeping force is one of several which Indonesia - the current Asean chair - put forward during discussions on a plan of action for implementing the Asean Security Community by 2020, he said.
"This is not for now, this is something that we project for the future," Natalegawa said.
Indonesia first raised the security community idea last June as a way to handle security matters and disputes in an Asean framework rather than bilaterally or through international forums such as the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In the latest bilateral arrangement, Malaysia is preparing to send an advance team of military observers to Mindanao in the southern Philippines ahead of Malaysian-mediated peace talks between the Philippine government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Early last year Indonesia allowed unarmed Thai and Filipino military monitors to observe a cease-fire between government and rebel forces in Aceh province. The monitors later withdrew amid escalating violence.
A Security Committee is one of three "pillars" included in the Bali Concord II endorsed last October at the Asean summit in Bali.
The concord lays the foundation for closer security and economic bonds in the region. Its other pillars are the Asean Economic Community and Asean Socio-cultural Community.
The "standby arrangements" for a peacekeeping force would be the maximum security response.
Other options could include co-operation with the United Nations, to benefit from their expertise, and co-ordination among Asean countries for joint training and other activities, Natalegawa said.
"We still have to flesh out or think through the details." The peacekeeping force is one of several proposals on regional security which Indonesia presented to the meeting, Natalegawa added.
Other ideas included a non-aggression treaty, an extradition treaty, a convention on counter-terrorism and an arms register.