AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Sun Jun 4, 11:58 PM ET
Australian PM to visit Indonesia in bid to end Papua row: report
Australia's prime minister will visit Indonesia later this month in an effort to ease
tensions over his government's decision to grant refugee visas to 42 Papuan
separatists, a newspaper has reported.
The Australian said John Howard was expected to meet Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono on Batam island, ending the worst diplomatic standoff between
the two countries since East Timor's independence vote in 1999.
Howard's office confirmed the two men had spoken by telephone last week in the
wake of the Java earthquake and that Howard intended to meet Yudhoyono shortly.
Relations between Jakarta and Canberra have been strained since March when
Howard's government issued temporary protection visas to 42 Papuan refugees who
had reached Australia by boat.
The move enraged Indonesia, which feared it signaled Australian support for Papuan
independence.
Papuan separatists have campaigned for more than 30 years to split from Indonesia,
accusing Jakarta of widespread human rights abuses.
Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono told The Australian that his president
had refused to speak to Howard for several weeks after the visas were granted
because he felt personally "betrayed."
"He banked so much on the personal relationship," Sudarsono was quoted by the
newspaper as saying. "He was very disappointed because he had a very close rapport
with Howard."
The defense minister said Yudhoyono now accepted Canberra's explanation of the
legal basis for granting the visas and expected the row to be resolved.
"I think it's simmering down and should be resolved in the next couple of weeks,"
Sudarsono added. "The president has said to me: 'presidents and prime ministers go
but at the end of the day these two cultures must work together'."
The newspaper said Indonesia's ambassador to Australia, who was withdrawn at the
height of the row, would return shortly and that a joint forum of government ministers
was expected to take place on the Indonesian island of Bali at the end of the month.
Howard has painstakingly rebuilt ties with Jakarta after relations plummeted following
East Timorese independence. He has repeatedly stressed his support for Indonesian
sovereignty over Papua and has annouced a series of controversial changes in the
way asylum seekers are dealt with in a bid to placate Jakarta.
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