[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia says Papua row with Australia settled

[Joyo at aol.com]

Indonesia says Papua row with Australia settled

JAKARTA, July 4 (Reuters) - Indonesia and Australia
have put behind them a row over Canberra agreeing to
take in asylum seekers from Papua province, Jakarta's
foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Bilateral ties soured after Canberra granted temporary
visas in March to 42 asylum seekers from Papua who
sailed to Australia and accused Indonesia of
conducting genocide in their homeland, a claim Jakarta
denies.

"I would say it's settled, yes, in terms of our
bilateral relations," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda
told reporters.

The issue caused the most serious disruption in ties
since Australia led a U.N. force to end bloodshed in
East Timor after its 1999 independence from Indonesia.

The dispute has cooled since Australian Prime Minister
John Howard assured Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono at talks last week that Canberra had
no wish to be a staging point for separatists from
Papua province. Wirajuda said a letter sent by Howard
to the Indonesian president ahead of the meeting on
the Indonesian island of Batam had made it clear
Australia would not support financially or otherwise
groups promoting separatism.

"But we will see whether these words will be
translated into deeds," Wirajuda added.

On another matter of concern between the two, he said
Indonesia was keeping tabs on Abu Bakar Bashir, a
radical Muslim cleric linked to the 2002 Bali bombs
that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Bashir, who was released from jail last month, has
consistently denied any connection to that or other
attacks.

"I cannot say how we follow him, monitor him, but
certainly we do," said Wirajuda, when asked if
Indonesia was monitoring Bashir on a 24-hour basis.

The foreign minister earlier addressed a seminar to
launch a new book on the fluctuating ties between the
huge, developing Asian nation and its Western-style
southern neighbour.

He referred to the relationship as having a "great
deal of calm beneath a stormy surface" at the launch
of the book: "Different societies, shared futures:
Australia, Indonesia and the region".

"Australia and Indonesia are important to each other,
neither can afford to see their relationship unravel,"
he said.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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