Alan Taylor summoned over second flag burning

JAKARTA (JP): Australian Ambassador Alan Taylor was summoned to the Indonesian foreign ministry on Wednesday, the second time in 10-days, over another Indonesian flag burning incident in Australia.

Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said he summoned the ambassador after receiving reports that a group of six to 10 demonstrators burned the Indonesian flag and an effigy of President Soeharto in Darwin on Tuesday.

"I expressed the government's strong protest about the incident," Alatas said after the meeting with the ambassador.

Another flag-burning incident also reportedly happened in Melbourne yesterday, involving about 200 pro-East Timorese. They burned flags and jostled guests attending a function at the Indonesian consulate held to mark the 50th anniversary of Indonesian independence, AFP reported.

These incidents threaten to undermine relations between Jakarta and Canberra.

The demonstrators were protesting Indonesia's 1976 integration of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor. The first occurrence reportedly happened in Melbourne at the beginning of the month at a protest over Indonesia's participation in the Kangaroo 1995 joint military exercise in northern Australia.

According to Alatas, Taylor regretted the incident but maintained that there was not much Canberra could do.

"We are not asking them (the Australian government) to stop the demonstration, we realize that in Australia there is freedom to demonstrate, even here you can do it too. What we regret is the burning of the flag. For us the flag is sacred," Alatas explained.

Regret

Yesterday, Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans said he deeply regretted demonstrations, including the burning of Indonesian flags.

Evans said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post that Australians did not always understand how the burning of a national flag could be a direct insult and an attack on a country's national pride and dignity.

"Such actions are not illegal anywhere in Australia, and accordingly there is little that law enforcement authorities can do when protesters choose to express themselves in this way," he said.

Alatas said Canberra should take preventive steps to prevent a repetition of the incident, and cited talking to the perpetrators as one possible alternative.

"Every time we expressed our protest, all the Australian side did was to say that they regret it... If that (to do nothing but regret) is the case, I'm deeply concerned," Alatas said.

He lamented the fact that this small group of protesters could hold "hostage" relations between the two countries.

Relations between Indonesia and Australia became strained when the Indonesian government had to withdraw retired Lt. Gen. H.B.L. Mantiri's nomination as ambassador to Canberra in June.

Despite having already accepted his nomination, Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans asked Mantiri to apologize for a comment he made concerning the killing of over 50 demonstrators by security forces in Dili in 1991.

Commenting on Evans intention to visit East Timor early next year, Alatas welcomed the idea saying that it could become "an eye opener so that he does not make the kind of assumptions he is making now."

"I am convinced that if he sees the situation, then he will change his mind," Alatas said of his Australian counterpart.

Meanwhile, Abu Hartono, a member of the House of Representatives from the Armed Forces faction also expressed disappointment of the incident.

"The Australian government is responsible for preventing such things," he said, stressing that Indonesians regard the national red-and-white flag with highest honor and pride.

Abu said it was too early to talk about breaking off diplomatic relations. (mds)