This has just been posted air mail. Attempts to ring the Javanese embassy to learn their fax number meet a recorded message that mean the phone number is out of commission. The garbage is feeling the heat! Dion --------------------------------------- To Wiryono Sastrohandoyo Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Embassy of The Republic of Indonesia 8 Darwin Avenue Yarralumla ACT 2600 Dear Mr Wiryono I heard you state on ABC Radio that you were upset at the treatment your country is receiving at the hands of the Australian media. Let me assure you, Mr Wiryono, that the Australian media do not reflect the opinions and feelings of the Australian people. For many years, while newspapers like The Australian were kowtowing to the thieves who run your country at all levels, a significant part of Australian public opinion regarded your occupation of East Timor and West Papua as a disgrace and saw you as a potential enemy of Australia. Now that your soldiers have paraded your cultural values so starkly on our TV screens, the Australian people are coming to realise that the reality is far worse even than they'd believed, and the newspapers are desperately trying not to get too much out of step with this opinion. The reason they do not wish to get out of step is that they wish to be in a position, in the future, to wheedle the Australian people back into accepting restoration of friendly relations between Australia and Indonesia. The objective is profit. You can be certain, though, that a growing number of Australian people now reject all moves to restore links of friendship with your murderous country: not now, not in the future - indeed not until you have got your snouts out of all the countries which you rule without consent, not until you have handed over your war criminals to international tribunals with the will to punish them as deserved, not until you have dismantled your army (which was born as a quisling force working for the Japanese invaders). Learn to expect hostility, Mr Wiryono - hostility along the lines which we showed towards the Apartheid regime in South Africa even back in the days when our government was hand in glove with them - but far more intense and deep hostility because your regime is far more odious than that of the Boers. Learn to expect that every move to maintain aid and trade links with your country will be hotly contested, in an organised way with maximum effort to enlist worldwide support. My only personal regret is the (very small) part I played in the campaign to stop the Dutch reasserting their rule over NEI after the war. That was a terrible mistake. Perhaps you might contemplate the following paragraph from an article by Klomjit Chandrapanya in the Jakarta Post: "Indonesia is a strange construct. It got put together by the Dutch. There's no other reason why this particular entity exists, except the Dutch put them together and called them the Dutch East Indies. They're scared stiff about it breaking apart at the seams, as well they might [be]." We'll be doing what we can to help the process along. Dion Giles 53 Wood Street Fremantle WA 6160 --------------------------------------------------------------------- [Background (ABC web site) Indo ambassador slams media handling of crisis Indonesia's ambassador to Australia has lashed out at the media's reporting of the situation in East Timor. Wiryono Sastrohandoyo says the relationship between the two countries is strained and is deteriorating. He says the media should be reporting the whole picture. "It's my duty as ambassador to keep the relationship on good footing," he said. "I think the maturity of the relationship is there and of course I'm worried and I think the media too needs to help because the awful enthusiasm and the glee in reporting our misfortune and our shortcomings is amazing. "I mean is this a friendly country or what?" Meanwhile, Mr Wiryono has denied suggestions there is a power struggle going on between his country's leaders. He says his Government is working together, including General Wiranto and President BJ Habibie. "Both, all of the Ministers, the whole Government," he said. "You seem to be happy when we are having a problem of a coup d'etat or things like that - Indonesia is in the process of democratisation and you should be somewhat more helpful." -- For MAI-not (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion. To unsubscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=unsubscribe To subscribe click here Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=subscribe For information on [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.neither.org/lists/public-list.htm For archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
