[asia-apec 796] G&M: Security Scares May Have Altered PM's Policy

[Sharon R.A. Scharfe]

Globe and Mail
Monday, October 12, 1998
Page A3

"Security Scares May Have Altered PM's Policy"
Incidents in Indonesia and Mexico as well as an Ottawa break-in could have
stiffened Chretien's approach"

Jeff Sallot
The Globe and Mail, Ottawa

        Canadian officials, including Mounties in Prime Minister Jean
Chretien's personal bodyguard unit, got a disturbing close-up look at th
Indonesian security apparatus during a Team Canada trade visit in January of
1996.
        An Indonesian security officer jabbed a submachine gun into the ribs
of a senior official from the Prime Minister's Office as the official tried
to lead TV camera crews to their locations for the airport arrival
ceremonies.  A CTV cameraman was knocked down.
        The next day Canadian diplomats and members of the RCMP security
detail had to hide a Canadian human-rights activist from Indonesian police
after she tried to approach journalists with information about rights abuses
in Indonesia.  They managed to sneak her out of the delegation hotel and get
her on the next plane out of the country.
        Those incidents, and others, may help explain why Mr. Chretien and
his closest aides took an extraordinary interest in minute security details
at the Pacific Rim summit in Vancouver last year.
        Mr. Chretien had always fancied himself a man of the people, most
comfortable rubbing shoulders in crowds.  As justice minister he brought in
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the early 1980s.  Yet
security scares during the visit to Indonesia and an official visit to
Mexico City, as well as incidents in Ottawa that included a late-night
break-in at his residence, may have caused a change.
        In opposition, the Liberals regularly criticized prime minister
Brian Mulroney for a supposedly grand presidential style that they said was
out of keeping with simple Canadian traditions.  So when Mr. Chretien took
office in 1993, among the first things to go were the armour-plated Cadillac
limousine and travel on the fancy Airbus ordered by Mr. Mulroney.
        This change of style, however, presented problems for the RCMP
bodyguards, as became apparent during the ill-fated visit to Mexico City in
March of 1995.  
        Mr. Chretien flew directly to Mexico on a small government jet,
leaving most of his entourage, including most of the Mounties, to make their
way on commercial flights.  But bad weather delayed connections.  The
Mounties reached Mexico City well after midnight and had only a few hours of
sleep before they had to be up for the first official event.
        Things went from bad to worse when the presidential candidate of
Mexico's governing party was assassinated during a campaign stop in Tijuana.
Mr. Chretien and his official party tried to pay their respects the next day
at the funeral hall.  Mexico City was in turmoil, and the Mounties and
Mexican security officers assigned to work with them were feeling jittery.
        The unscheduled visit of the Canadian Prime Minister at the funeral
hall produced a mob scene, with weeping and shouting Mexicans jostlinga nd
pushing the Mounties, Mexican security officers, Mr. Chretien, his official
party and the trailing Canadian press  corps.  Some Mounties worried about
what would happen if the scene went from merely ugly to the violent and they
were unarmed.
        Until then the Mounties left their guns at home or on the plane
during such visits, but the Mexican mob scene resulted in a new policy.  The
RCMP obtained permission for officers to carry their personal sidearms onto
foreign soil, and offered reciprocity.
        Thus foreign security officers, including four of the Indonesian
bodyguards accompanying President Suharto to the Vancouver Asia-Pacific
Economic Co-operation summit, were issued temporary gun permits and sworn in
as special constables with the RCMP for their stay in Canada.
        The Indonesians wanted to know what would happen if they shot
anti-Suharto demonstrators who got too close.  One Mountie was so alarmed
that he warned of the possibility of a shootout with the Indonesian officers.
        East Timorese and other Indonesian refugees in Canada who spoke out
against Suharto said they often were followed and harassed by Indonesian
diplomats.  Indonesian ambassador Benjamin Parwoto was called in and
reprimanded by the Department of Foreign Affairs for harassing the family of
one Timorese woman who had found refuge in Canada.

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  For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact:      
  Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat, PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR EAST TIMOR
Suite 116, 5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON  K1C 7K2  CANADA            
  Fax: 1-613-834-2021                     E-Mail:  pet at web.net


"... where there are profits to be defended, law, justice, freedom,
democracy and peace are the victims."  -- Xanana Gusmao, Jailed Leader of
East Timor in Preface to "Complicity: Human Rights and Canadian Foreign
Policy -- the Case of East Timor" (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1996). 
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