US shouldn't force its anti-terrrorist approach on other nations, Indonesia says

Photo: US shouldn't force its anti-terrrorist approach on other nations, Indonesia says

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said he will raise the issue with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld when he visits Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, next Tuesday.

"We will tell the United States that if it demands that the handling of terrorism be based on its ways, it will only hurt the United States itself ... and cause anger and a loss of sympathy among the world's communities," Sudarsono told reporters.

Sudarsono said it would be better to let each country decide how to handle terrorism rather than having it be based on the will of the United States or other parties. He didn't elaborate.

The U.S. and Indonesia have experienced the world's deadliest terrorist attacks _ the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in America that killed nearly 3,000 people and the Oct. 12, 2002, nightclub bombings on Bali island that killed 202 people.

The Bali attack and a series of other terrorist bombings in Indonesia have been blamed on the al-Qaida-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, which wants to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia.

Anti-American sentiment in Indonesia rose sharply after the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and many see the U.S. war on terrorism as being directed against Muslims.

Many Indonesian Muslim groups also believe the government's handling and imprisonment of certain terrorist suspects, including alleged Jemaah Islamiyah spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, was based on pressure from Washington.

A.M.