INQ7.net, Nov 02, 2005
Indonesia to crack down on hate text messages
JAKARTA--Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered police to
crack down on mobile phone users sending racist text messages which have
flourished in the past week, his spokesman said Wednesday.
The text messages, which have been widely reported in the local media without
divulging their exact wording, blames minority ethnic Chinese for Indonesia's current
economic woes and calls for attacks on them.
"Such slanderous, hate-filled SMS messages cannot be tolerated because they
create restlessness among people. The president has urged police to investigate and
take action," presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng told Agence France-Presse.
Mallarangeng said Yudhoyono's wife Ani as well as presidential staff had received the
messages but refused to reveal their content.
Senders of such messages were currently hard to trace because they used pre-paid
mobile phones, but a decree recently issued by the information ministry requiring
pre-paid users to register should help, Mallarangeng added.
The Chinese community has had a troubled history in Indonesia and been the target
of bouts of violence, including during political and economic upheaval in the capital
Jakarta in 1998 that led the downfall of president Suharto.
The Chinese make up about three percent of Indonesia's 224 million mostly-Muslim
population but control much of the country's economy.
-Agence France-Presse-
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