Australia spying on Japanese embassy: Newspaper report

Australia spying on Japanese embassy: Newspaper report

SYDNEY (AFP): Australia mounted widespread and systematic spying against the Japanese embassy in Canberra, according to a new report here yesterday.

In the latest of a flood of claims of espionage involving Australia and its trading partners, The Sydney Morning Herald said sensitive trade and diplomatic information was being intercepted from Japan's Canberra mission.

It was then decoded, translated and made available to "even relatively junior staff" in the department of foreign affairs and trade.

Quoting unnamed sources, the paper said surveillance and eavesdropping had also been conducted against other countries with diplomatic missions in Canberra, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Iraq, Iran and Russia.

The surveillance of foreign missions revealed the conversations of Australian bureaucrats visiting them for consultations.

A "senior diplomat" was quoted as saying: "It is funny to read an embassy's account of a visit you have made to their mission and their interpretation of your conversations."

Reports last week said Japan, among other countries, had been spying on Australia, inspiring indignant denials by the Japanese embassy and embarrassing Canberra during a visit to Japan by Prime Minister Paul Keating.

Government sources, while refusing to confirm or deny the reports, have described them as "not helpful" and that they put "an element of strain" into bilateral relationships at a very high level.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Friday that "extremely valuable information" had been relayed to US intelligence from a network of fiber-optic bugging devices planted in the Chinese embassy during its construction in the late '80s.

Australia's conservative opposition has refused to be drawn into the spy claims, arguing they could damage the national interest.

However, Australia's former ambassador to China, Hugh Dunn, said any damage from allegations that Australia had bugged the Chinese embassy was likely to be limited because all diplomats expected they were under electronic surveillance.

"I can't see why it would be in anyone's interests to keep blowing it up," Dunn said in a radio interview.

"Everyone knows spy stories are great stories, they're great news, everyone likes to read them ... and everyone also knows that most countries do indulge in such practices.

"I assume the Chinese, who are a very professional foreign service, would do it also, so there would be a careful watch on this sort of thing made at all times."

The reports followed allegations that members of the Chinese community here have been the target of espionage activity by Chinese agents here.

They also followed complaints by disgruntled former agents of Australia's secret overseas intelligence network concerning their personal treatment.