| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| John Howard rules out apologising to Indonesia |
| 2006-04-18 |
| PRIME Minister John Howard has ruled out apologising to Indonesia over Australia's decision to grant temporary asylum to 42 Papuan boatpeople. Mr Howard said today Australia had nothing to apologise for over the decision, which has seen relations between the two countries plunge to their lowest point since the East Timor crisis in 1999. Australia's most senior diplomat, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade head Michael L'Estrange, will head to Jakarta for meetings with ministers and senior advisers to try to soothe Indonesian feelings. Mr Howard said he expected to talk directly to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono about the issue some time after Mr L'Estrange's visit. But asked whether Australia needed to issue an apology, Mr Howard said: "No". "This is a difficult issue," he said on Southern Cross Broadcasting in Perth. "It's not an insurmountable problem, it's not an insoluble one, I'm sure we can work our way through it but it will take time. "And it will take commonsense on both sides and it will take, on both sides, respect for the other's point of view. "I respect the sensitivity of Indonesia towards the Papuan issue. "Equally, I ask Indonesia to accept that we have a procedure, we have a process according to our interpretation of law, and we don't intend to bend and vary that because it's the code under which we live in this country." Dr Yudhoyono has signalled a review of relations between Australia and Indonesia, saying his country cannot be harassed, played with, or deprived of fairness. Indonesia insists Canberra had no reason to grant temporary visas to 42 of 43 Papuan separatists who landed in Cape York in January, claiming to be victims of human rights abuses. Earlier today an Indonesian MP said Mr L'Estrange's mission to Jakarta would fail without ministerial representation. Yesterday Dr Yudhoyono declared Australia's tougher immigration rhetoric needed to be backed by "concrete proof" that it supported his country's territorial integrity. Speaking at the opening of an annual forum on national development, Dr Yudhoyono departed from his prepared script to launch an attack on what he described as Australia's duplicitous attitude to his Government. He said Indonesia wanted to continue "contributing to the world order", but immediately warned Australia: "Don't insult us, don't toy with us and don't deny us justice." Dr Yudhoyono received warm applause for his speech, during which he also warned: "Our position is clear: we must re-examine our co-operation and bilateral relationships with Australia so that they are genuinely fair." Australia's toughened refugee policy has sparked allegations that the Government made the policy change to kowtow to Jakarta. Former Australian diplomat Tony Kevin today described Canberra's policy as "unethical, illegal and dangerous" and the result of having "caved in to Indonesian blackmail". Writing in The Australian, Mr Kevin warns that Australia's policy of "appeasement" would lead only to further demands from Jakarta. "These policies send a wrong message, not just to the present fairly benign Indonesian Government, but also to darker extreme nationalist elements," he writes. "The message: That an Australian Government can be threatened - even blackmailed - into abandoning essential values and interests. That is not a good message to send to any neighbour." The Australian Democrats have also hit out at Canberra's handling of the dispute, saying the Howard Government should not apologise for protecting 42 asylum seekers from the Indonesian province of Papua. "They have no right to expect any more. I think our government has already kowtowed on the issue, we've ignored long-running ... human rights abuses in our region, and specifically in West Papua, for long enough," Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja said on ABC Radio. "We've done the right thing by granting temporary protection visas to the 42 asylum seekers, it's now up to Australia to defend that decision, not to try changing our immigration laws in the wake of concerns expressed by the Indonesian government." Labor predicted the Government's hardline stance on asylum seekers would be an expensive failure, with the cost of maintaining offshore detention centres running to $4 million per month. "We're talking about extraordinary amounts of money simply for a public relations exercise," Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke said on ABC Radio. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |