The Jakarta Post, 9/3/2004 5:31:33 PM
Australia complains about Bali bomber's coffee break
SYDNEY (DPA): Australia on Friday complained to Indonesia over Bali bomber Ali
Imron being allowed out of jail to have a Starbucks coffee in a plush Jakarta shopping
mall in the company of top police official Brig. Gen. Gorries Mere.
Prime Minister John Howard said it was unacceptable for a convicted criminal to be
allowed out of jail to have coffee with a senior Indonesian police officer.
"I find it insensitive and if that's regarded as an objection or an expression, well then it
should be taken as such," he said."Anything that displays insensitivity towards the
relatives who died there, I would protest on their behalf."
Two hundred and two people died in the bombing of a Bali nightclub on Oct. 12, 2002.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said top diplomat Dr Ashton Calvert was in
Jakarta and had taken up the issue with Indonesian authorities.
"He made it perfectly clear that in Australia we were rather alarmed ... at the reports I
have heard that Ali Imron was in a Starbucks cafe and later went into the Hard Rock
Cafe and had something to eat," Downer said.
"This is somebody who has been involved in a mass murder, including the murder of
88 Australians ... so we have been very active in taking this up with the Indonesians.
We don't do things that way in this country." (**)
All contents copyright © of The Jakarta Post.
|
