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Aussies slam offensive cartoon
30/03/2006 07:55 - (SA)
Canberra - An Indonesian cartoon
depicting Australia's prime minister and foreign minister as
fornicating dingoes was "grotesque", Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer said on Thursday as bilateral tension flared with
Jakarta.
Prime Minister John Howard acknowledged that Canberra's
decision to grant protection visas to 42 asylum seekers from
Indonesia's troubled Papuan province had strained ties.
"This incident has put a strain on the relationship,"
Howard told a news conference in Canberra on Thursday.
"I believe that the challenge will pass. I don't believe
it's going to cause any fundamental lasting damage to the
relationship," Howard said, adding that he had taken no
personal offence from the lurid newspaper cartoon.
Papuan independence activists have campaigned for more than
30 years to break away from Indonesia, while a low-level
rebellion has also simmered. Human rights groups accuse
Indonesia of widespread abuses there, but Jakarta denies any
wrongdoing.
Freedom of speech
Howard again reassured Indonesia that Australia had not
changed its support for Indonesian sovereignty over Papua,
saying that Canberra's processes for dealing with asylum
seekers were independent of foreign policy considerations.
Indonesia recalled its ambassador to Australia last week in
protest at the decision taken to grant protection visas to the
Papuans despite a request from President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono for the asylum seekers to be returned.
The visa decision prompted protests outside the Australian
embassy in Jakarta on Monday. The cartoon which ran in Monday's
Rakyat Merdeka newspaper depicted Downer and Howard as dingoes
(wild dogs), with Howard's front paws on Downer's back, saying:
"I want Papua!! Alex! Try to make it happen!".
"You can publish cartoons which are tasteless and
grotesque, but you are free to do so," Downer said on Thursday,
adding that Australians would regard the publication as
offensive.
"But they're free to be offensive in a magazine in
Indonesia if they wish to be," he said, adding: "This cartoon
is certainly a very base piece of work."
Downer called Rakyat Merdeka a tacky publication.
Traditionally volatile, Canberra's ties with Jakarta hit a
low in 1999, when Australia led peacekeeping forces into the
former Indonesian province of East Timor to quell militia
violence.
But the relationship later improved with close
anti-terrorism co-operation after the 2002 bombings on the
Indonesian resort island of Bali which killed scores of
Australians, and Canberra's prompt aid following the
devastating 2004 tsunami.
- Reuters
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