[Kabar-indonesia] Update: No Indonesia security pact to be signed, says Howard

[Joyo at aol.com]

Agence France-Presse
Sunday June 25, 2006    

No Indonesia security pact to be signed, says Howard

Australian Prime Minister John Howard denied that he would sign a security 
pact with Indonesia's president at a meeting to heal a diplomatic rift between 
the two countries.

"There won't be any security pact signed," Howard told reporters ahead of his 
departure for visits to Indonesia and China.

"The suggestion that a security pact would come out of these discussions is 
not one that came from me or from the Australian side."

Howard is due to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the island of 
Batam Monday for the first time since Australia granted temporary protection 
visas to 42 Papuans in March, infuriating Jakarta.

Indonesia saw the move as showing Australian support for an independent Papua 
and withdrew its ambassador from Canberra in retaliation.

The ambassador returned several weeks later after Howard pledged to pass new 
immigration legislation which would make it difficult for any more Papuans to 
seek asylum in Australia.

A backbench revolt last week forced Howard to make concessions and delay the 
legislation, however, which leaves him empty-handed for the meeting.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said last month that Australia would 
formally recognise Indonesia's sovereignty over the troubled province of Papua in a 
new security agreement which would probably be discussed at the talks.

All Howard said Sunday, however, was that Australia supported Indonesia's 
sovereignty over Papua.

"This issue is one that has to be resolved with Papua as part of Indonesia," 
he said. "We are ready to help in any way we can in that process."

Also high on the agenda will be Australia's concern over the release from 
jail this month of radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual 
leader of extremist Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Bashir had served less than 26 months for conspiracy over the 2002 Bali 
bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and Howard has said he 
would tell Yudhoyono of Australian anger over Bashir's release.

Howard wrote to the Indonesian president to note that the UN Security Council 
had listed the cleric as a terrorist and that he was subject to an assets 
freeze, restricted travel and a ban on accessing arms.

"I will certainly be raising that and my position is set out in the letter 
that I wrote," Howard said. "I will continue to maintain that position in my 
discussions with him."

Despite the controversies over Bashir's release and the Papuan asylum 
seekers, relations between the two countries remained sound and they shared a common 
goal of defeating terrorism, Howard said.

"I think the relationship is good. It's always a challenging relationship 
because we are very different countries and very different people."

------------------------------------------ 
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------