Surabaya - The Indonesian President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, said yesterday he had rejected calls by some UN Security Council members for international peacekeepers to help end religious slaughter in the Spice Islands.
Mr Wahid told a political rally that the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, had called him on Saturday to discuss the possibility of peacekeepers entering the Moluccas, where thousands have died in religious fighting since early 1999.
"Last night I got a call from Kofi Annan and he said that he had been pressured by members of the Security Council to send a force to the Moluccas, Mr Wahid said in Surabaya, East Java.
"I refused and said we can handle the Moluccas by ourselves," Mr Wahid added, without saying which countries on the 15-member Security Council had put pressure on Mr Annan.