Indonesia warns Australia against pressure over convicts
Indonesia has threatened that it would allow a “human tsunami” of thousands of asylum seekers to Australia amid tensions between the two countries over a death sentence handed down to two Aussie drug dealers in the Southeast Asian country.
“If Canberra keeps doing things that displease Indonesia, Jakarta will surely let the illegal immigrants go to Australia,” said Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, during an interview with local TV on Tuesday.
“There are more than 10,000 in Indonesia today. If they are let go to Australia, it will be like a human tsunami,” Tedjo added.
The minister argued that Jakarta has so far been collaborating with Canberra to keep migrating people from illegally crossing the Timor Sea to Australia.
According to Tedjo, however, the cooperation may halt if (Australian) Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s administration continues to pressure Jakarta to grant clemency for the two Aussie convicts, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
The warning by Tedjo came as a response to Abbott’s comments last month that Indonesia should remember the 1 billion dollars of financial aid Australia gave to it in the aftermath of a devastating 2004 tsunami, which killed 170,000 Indonesians.
Canberra has also tried to discourage tourism to the Indonesian island of Bali in a bid to stop the capital punishments from taking place.
This is while Indonesian President Joko Widodo defended last week his decision not to grant clemency to the convicts.
Chan and Sukumaran were arrested together with seven others by Indonesian police in 2005 while trying to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Indonesia to Australia. The two are awaiting their executions at Indonesia’s Nusakambangan’s Besi prison.
CAH/HJL/HRB
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