RI condemns embassy security hoax

RI condemns embassy security hoax

Agencies, Jakarta, Canberra

Indonesia on Tuesday condemned as a "terror threat" the second security hoax at its embassy in Canberra in a week, amid growing resentment towards its neighbor's obsession with a young Australian woman jailed in Bali on drugs charges.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said the incident was "part of a wave of threat of terror" against Indonesia.

Australian police sealed off Indonesia's Canberra mission earlier on Tuesday following the discovery of a package that Wirayuda said contained white powder similar to a substance that caused an alert at the embassy last week.

Police said tests on both substances showed they were benign.

There has been widespread public outrage in Australia after an Indonesian court jailed 27-year-old Schapelle Corby, who was caught with 4.1 kilograms of marijuana stuffed in her luggage at Bali's airport.

Many of Corby's supporters, who back her claim that she was the victim of an international smuggling syndicate, have threatened to boycott Bali as a holiday destination and have demanded the return of aid for Indonesian tsunami victims.

Hassan said the latest incident would not harm often rocky ties between Indonesia and Australia, which began improving when Canberra offered help in the wake of the Oct. 2002, Bali bombings in which 88 Australians died.

"Actions such as this one will not intimidate our bilateral relations. We condemn this type of action," he said.

The Australian reaction to Corby's sentence has, however, stirred resentment among ordinary Indonesians, who see it as an attempt by their neighbor to interfere in Indonesia's justice system.

Australian politician Bruce Billson, who was in Indonesia on Tuesday for discussions on a possible prisoner exchange deal that would allow Corby to serve her sentence in her homeland, also condemned the embassy incidents.

"Firstly we conveyed how appalled we are and disgusted by the parcels that have been sent to the Indonesian embassies. It is very un-Australian," he said.

"We conveyed our deep regret and how appalled we are that such an activity has happened in our land."

Negotiations began in Jakarta this week on Australia's push for a prisoner exchange treaty that could enable Corby and 13 other Australians in Indonesian prisons to serve their time at home.

Billson said after discussions with Indonesian officials that such a treaty would take months.

"We discussed the Corby case briefly and recognized that calm heads are what (are) needed now," he said.

A poll published on Tuesday revealed Australians are divided on whether Corby is guilty or innocent.

The AC Nielsen poll of 1,401 people published in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper showed 17 percent of people are convinced Corby is innocent and 17 percent believe she was probably or definitely guilty.

A slight majority -- 51 percent -- thought the trial in Bali was unfair. The poll had a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.

A previous poll linked to a television show aired before Corby's May 27 verdict had suggested more than 90 percent of Australians believed she was innocent.

In a possible blow to the tourism industry in Bali, which draws thousands of Australians each year, 48 percent of the people in the latest poll said the Corby case would make them less likely to visit the tropical island.