'Indonesia should be firmer with Australia'

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government should be more stern in protesting the recent raids by Australia's intelligence agency against Indonesians living in Australia as part of its crackdown against terrorists, a noted international relations analyst said.

Juwono Sudarsono, also a former defense and education minister, said on Saturday that this was not the first time Canberra's domestic politics had cost Indonesia, and such actions must not happen again in the future.

"The government should have said that this is a maddeningly stupid move of Australian Prime Minister John Howard for his own political interests at the cost of Indonesia," Juwono told The Jakarta Post.

He noted that Howard was currently using the terrorism issue to strengthen domestic support for his administration.

He underlined that although it was the right of Canberra to conduct such a raid to protect its country, it should not offend Indonesians.

"Australia should have been more sensitive, in times like this, and Jakarta should have demonstrated a stronger response against it," Juwono said.

Bilateral relations between Indonesia and Australia have been moving like a roller-coaster in recent years following Australia's strong involvement in the separation of East Timor from Indonesia in 1999.

The relations between the two countries were apparently moving closer after the Oct. 12 Bali bombing, in which the two countries grieved together as most of the victims were Australian holidaymakers.

Strong cooperation in the investigation with generous assistance from Canberra had helped both countries to put aside differences.

However, an unprecedented move of Canberra to conduct nation- wide raids against some Indonesians, allegedly for their involvement in terrorist activities, soon offended Jakarta.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda had summoned the representative from the Australian Embassy here twice to express Indonesia's concern and asked Canberra to give advance notice to Jakarta each time Indonesian citizens were to be targeted in the crackdown.

At least six Indonesian families had been raided across Australia.

About 50 members of Sydney's Indonesian community, some of whom were targeted in the raids, staged a peaceful protest outside Prime Minister John Howard's residence in Canberra on Sunday over what they saw as an assault on their civil liberties. They moved on after sitting quietly for half an hour, AFP reported.

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Alexander Downer spoke with his Indonesian counterpart on Saturday about the raids by the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) and the federal police.

"I think the Indonesian foreign minister was very clear in his message," he told ABC radio.

Nevertheless, Downer blamed the Indonesian media for raising tensions by exaggerating accounts of the antiterrorist crackdown.