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Jakarta protesters attack Australian embassy over spying revelations Jakarta protesters attack Australian embassy over spying revelations
(about 9 hours later)
There were more angry protests outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta on Friday over the revelations about attempted phone-tapping against the Indonesian president. Protests against the Australian embassy in Jakarta have intensified as scores descended on the mission building calling for diplomats to be expelled following allegations that Australia’s spies attempted to bug the phone of the Indonesian president.
Hundreds of people turned up to voice displeasure about the targeting of the personal mobile phones of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, his wife and members of his inner circle. Around 500 people from three hardline fringe groups pelted the embassy with eggs and red paint and clashed with police on Friday before they were beaten back with canes and teargas.
Nationalist and Islamist groups were represented at the protest, which was better attended and more heated than those that took place on Thursday. “Expel, expel Australia, expel Australia right now,” they chanted. “Burn, burn Australia, burn Australia now.”
Some protesters pelted the embassy with eggs and tomatoes and others called for the expulsion of all Australian diplomats. Australians were called “information stealers” and their country an enemy of Indonesia. They called for the disbanding of Detachment 88, an Indonesian counter-terror force funded by Australia and America and created after the 2002 Bali bombings.
A speaker from the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia said: “Australia has to apologise and beg for mercy. Speaking to Guardian Australia before the protest, Novel Ba’mukmin, spokesman for the Jakarta chapter of the Islamist group Islamic Defenders Front, said the group was not calling for any Australians on non-official business to be expelled. “If they’re here in a personal capacity then we should respect them. For those who are here representing their government then they should be expelled,” he said.
“We will be coming until the Australian prime minister apologises to the Indonesian people.” Islamic Defenders Front, who call for sharia law in Indonesia and are known to have organised a number of violent incidents, hold regular demonstrations in the capital but have a small membership base by comparison with other moderate Muslim organisations in Jakarta.
There were said to be 500 police officers on standby, with riot vans and water cannon. Around 100 members of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia, another small Islamist group, also protested, calling for Australia “to apologise and beg for mercy”.
Earlier, a powerful Indonesian opposition politician and former chief of the country’s intelligence agency attacked Tony Abbott’s response to the revelations, saying the Australian prime minister was "lacking in diplomacy skills". “We will be coming until the Australian prime minister apologises to the Indonesian people,” a Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia spokesman said addressing the crowd.
"Once you're unfaithful, you will no longer be trusted," Tubagus Hasanuddin told the ABC and Guardian Australia. Earlier, members of the hardline nationalist group KPMP burned the Australian flag and pictures of Tony Abbott, the prime minister, as well as pelting the embassy with eggs, leaving the front wall soaked in yolk.
"This needs to be understood by Australians – especially the Australian prime minister. On Friday a spokesman for the Indonesian police force, Brigadier-General Ronny Sompie, told Guardian Australia that all non-urgent co-operation between Indonesian and Australian police forces was being halted, a further blow to the Abbott government’s attempt to curb people smuggling in the region.
“If I can suggest, [he should] just express regret and apologise for what happened in the past – because he wasn't involved in it, thus he's not responsible for it.” The Australian prime minister has come under sustained pressure to apologise to the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, after Indonesia downgraded its relationship with Australia following the phone-tapping revelations published by Guardian Australia and the ABC.
Abbott has come under sustained pressure to apologise to Yudhoyono. All non-urgent police co-operation between the two countries has been suspended, in a further sign of the uneasy relationship between them. On Friday Indonesia’s former intelligence agency chief Tubagus Hasanuddin said Abbott, who has so far refused to confirm or deny the revelations and has not apologised, was “lacking in diplomacy skills”.
Hasanuddin, the deputy chairman of Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Commission, backed Yudhoyono’s handling of the dispute. “Once you’re unfaithful, you will no longer be trusted,” Hasanuddin said.
The phone-tapping revelations have resulted in Indonesia officially downgrading its relationship with Australia, temporarily suspending joint military operations and training, and halting information sharing. Co-operation on military operations targeting people-smuggling has also been suspended. The former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard also called on Abbott to issue an “appropriate response” to Indonesia “at this very difficult time”.
Indonesia’s national police spokesman, Brigadier-General Ronny Sompie, told Guardian Australia on Thursday that "all co-operation [between police] has been postponed, apart from those related to ongoing criminal investigations". Yudhoyono has written to Abbott after suspending all joint military operations with Australia as well as information sharing and operations to combat people smuggling.
On Friday former prime minister Julia Gillard called on Tony Abbott to issue an “appropriate response” to Indonesia “at this very difficult time”. The phone-tapping revelations continue to dominate the news in Indonesia, leading the front pages of Indonesian papers in both English and Bahasa.
In an interview with CNN, Gillard said the revelations should lead to a review of the checks and balances of Australian intelligence protocols.
“Given these revelations about president Yudhoyono, then obviously you would be looking again to make sure that the system is as robust as you would want it to be for the future," she said.
Yudhoyono has written to Abbott demanding an explanation for the attempted phone-tapping, after the Australian prime minister refused to confirm or deny the claims, or issue an apology.
The Indonesian foreign minister, Dr Marty Natalegawa, has briefly responded to comments from the Liberal strategist Mark Textor, apparently describing him as a “1970's Pilipino [sic] porn star”, branding them “desperate”. He declined to go into more detail.
"There is no need to make comments on remarks that have no substance. It only reflects how desperate they are," Natalegawa was quoted by the Indonesian news site inilah.com as telling reporters in Jakarta on Thursday. Textor has subsequently apologised, but denied the remarks had been directed at Natalegawa.
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