Reuters AlertNet Lite - Australia coy on apology to Indonesian governor

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Australia coy on apology to Indonesian governor

31 May 2007 00:24:48 GMT
Source: Reuters

CANBERRA, May 31 (Reuters) - Australia's government said on Thursday it understood why a senior Indonesian official felt humiliated by a run-in with Sydney police earlier this week, but an apology would be a matter for state government officials.

Indonesia has lodged a formal diplomatic protest after the governor of Jakarta, former General Sutiyoso, was served with a New South Wales state police summons to attend a coroner's inquest into the 1975 deaths of five journalists in East Timor.

Sutiyoso cut short an official visit to Australia, saying two officers barged into his hotel room on Tuesday while he was sleeping and asked him to sign an invitation to testify in the inquest.

"Australians have to understand the concept of humiliation in Indonesia. As the Indonesians would see it, this is an enormous humiliation for a major Indonesian figure," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australian radio.

In a bid to avert a full-scale diplomatic row between the two at-times prickly neighbours, Downer telephoned Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda on Wednesday and promised to investigate the matter.

But it was not up to Canberra to issue an apology for what Indonesia has called "rude and inappropriate" treatment of a senior figure, Downer said.

"He wasn't the guest of the federal government, he was the guest of the NSW government, so I think at the next stage it might be more appropriate for the NSW government to make contact with their guest," he said.

Sutiyoso, who served as a captain in East Timor at the start of Indonesian occupation of the territory, said he was angry at his treatment while in Australia on an official invitation.

"I refused to sign it. I told them I have nothing to do with the case," he told reporters, adding the police officers had obtained a master key from the hotel.

The Sydney inquest into the death of the five Australia-based journalists has heard they were deliberately gunned down by Indonesian soldiers.

In final submissions to the inquest, Mark Tedeschi, the counsel assisting the coroner, said the five journalists were killed in Balibo in East Timor to stop them reporting news of Indonesian military actions.

Official Indonesian reports have blamed the deaths of the five newsmen on Oct. 16, 1975 on crossfire, as Indonesian forces entered East Timor in an incursion ahead of a full-scale invasion of the territory in December of the same year.

Indonesia's Foreign Ministry has warned any adverse findings from the inquiry will be ignored and will only serve to damage the fragile bilateral relationship.

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Last updated:Thu May 31 00:26:20 2007