Indonesian Embassy in Australia reopens

Ivy Susanti and Rendi A. Witular The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

The Indonesian Embassy in Canberra resumed operations on Friday afternoon after being closed for two days due to security precautions, as another envelope of white powder was found at the Australian parliament.

Foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said that the embassy was reopened after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said that the powder sent in an envelope to Ambassador Imron Cotan on Wednesday did not contain any substance that could endanger human health or the environment.

Meanwhile, a suspicious package addressed to Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer forced the closure of the Australian parliament house loading dock on Friday. The packages sent to Downer and the embassy both contained harmless white powder and came amid an emotional backlash in Australia against Indonesia's guilty verdict of Australian Schapelle Corby on drug smuggling charges.

The Indonesian government assured the Australian community in Indonesia that there would be no retaliatory measures following the incident at its embassy in Canberra.

"There are no anti-Australian activities here in Indonesia following the threat at our embassy in Australia. This is just a small incident ... (the incident) must not lead us to conclude that all Australians are against us," Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Friday.

Marty added that Indonesians would not react the same way as Australians have over the incident, while giving credit to the Australian government, who immediately condemned the incident and began a quick investigation into the matter.

"The Indonesian public has been extremely measured and extremely constructive in responding to the latest development, and it may be a good lesson on how to respond to such a crisis -- in contrast to the way the Australian public has responded to the Corby case," he said on Friday.

He said the government also hoped the incident would serve as a warning to anybody who incited hatred and encouraged others to perform such actions.

"Though we have yet to prove that this incident at the embassy is related to Corby's case, we hope that the incident can alarm Australians to be more prudent, because their concern could be transformed into irresponsible acts," he said.

Marty said the embassy staff had received strong messages of condolence from many Australians. "Let's see what will happen in the future."

He added that the Indonesian embassy and consular offices in Australia would purchase special devices to screen all the letters addressed to the embassy.

Downer earlier said the embassy threat may have been a backlash in Australia over the fate of Corby, who was sentenced a week ago to 20 years in prison.

"As I have said this week in relation to the incident involving the Indonesian Embassy, this type of intimidation is deplorable," Downer said.

In a sign of the growing cooperation between Australia and Indonesia, three Indonesian police officers arrived in Canberra on Friday to help investigate the embassy package.

The AFP said they were now examining whether the security threats this week were linked, or the work of copycats.

"We're always troubled by copycats," AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty told reporters. "Certainly a second incident within a couple of days, the obvious thing is that it may well be linked, but we want to find that out by forensic examination."

Police said one person in the Australian parliament house's mail room underwent decontamination as a precautionary measure after coming into contact with the white powder in the package addressed to Downer.

The underground loading dock and mail room was shut down and the area cordoned off after the package was found early on Friday. The loading dock is in a separate building to the actual parliament, but is part of the parliamentary complex.

The parliament was not evacuated and Prime Minister John Howard remained inside the building holding meetings.

In Tokyo for talks with the Japanese government, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Australia and Indonesia had both condemned the security scare and had managed the incident well.

"I do hope this thing can be well managed by developing a sense of cooperation between Indonesia and Australia," he was quoted by Reuters as saying. He added that Indonesia needed to be allowed to enforce its drug laws.