Indonesia to send police to Australia

Published Jun 2, 2005

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By James Grubel and Tomi Soetjipto

Canberra and Jakarta - Indonesia will send police to Australia to help investigate biological powder sent to the Indonesian embassy as the two nations on Thursday vowed to minimise the diplomatic fallout from the security scare.

The powder, which police believe is harmless, was posted to Indonesia's ambassador to Australia Imron Cotan in what was described by media in both nations as an act of terror and by Australian Prime Minister John Howard as a "reckless, evil act".

Howard warned of possible retaliation against Australia as public emotions rose in both nations over the scare and the jailing of Australian Schapelle Corby on drug smuggling in Bali, which authorities believe sparked the embassy threat.

"Just as we cannot guarantee a random act of stupidity with an evil intent amongst our 20 million people won't occur, equally I cannot expect a guaranatee from the Indonesian government that some evil act of retaliation will (not) occur in that country," Howard told the Australian parliament.

The Indonesian embassy in Canberra remained locked up with no sign of activity on Thursday, with police patrolling the street outside and staff ordered to remain at home after spending 12 hours quarantined inside the building on Wednesday.

But in a sign of the increasing co-operation between the two governments, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Indonesia would send three police officers and one departmental official to join the police investigation into the powder.

The move reflects the co-operation between Australian and Indonesian police on recent drug investigations and the investigation into the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians.

Downer phoned Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda to apologise for the incident, which he has linked to the public backlash in Australia against the 20 year sentence handed down for Corby.

He said the security scare would not damage government-to-government relations, but the incident and the public anger over Corby would make it difficult to negotiate a prisoner exchange agreement for Corby to serve her prison sentence in Australia.

"This kind of behaviour does nothing to help Schapelle Corby's case, nor does abuse and denigration of Indonesia," Downer said.

In Jakarta, foreign ministry spokesperson Marty Natalegawa said the incident would not dent ties, as the two countries had both condemned the security scare, but could impact on the prisoner transfer talks.

"The idea of the agreement of the transfer of prisoners will be discussed on its own merit. At the same time though, the latest developments provides a context which is difficult to be divorced from the planned talks."

And one MP from the parliamentary commission on defence and foreign affairs called on the Indonesian government to issue a travel warning for Australia.

"If necessary, all families of diplomatic staff must return to Indonesia," Djoko Susilo of the National Mandate Party (PAN) was quoted as saying by local news portal, detik.com

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