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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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