International Herald Tribune, Sunday, March 5, 2006
Thousands rally against U.S. in Jakarta
The Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia Thousands of Muslims rallied in front of the tightly guarded U.S.
Embassy in Indonesia on Sunday, demanding American troops leave Iraq and
Afghanistan and calling President Bush a terrorist.
The protesters, many of whom were from the hardline group Hizbut Tharir, were kept
well away from the mission, which is ringed by two concrete walls and barbed wire.
Some 2,000 police stood watch and two water cannons stood by, but the rally ended
peacefully.
"Out of Iraq," the protesters chanted, gathering for hours under the blazing sun in the
capital, Jakarta. "Bush is a terrorist."
Anti-American sentiment in Indonesia - the world's largest Muslim nation - rose
sharply after the 2001 and 2003 invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and anger at the
United States flared following the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in
mostly European newspapers.
Some 5,000 people turned out for Sunday's rally, roughly half of them women and
children. Hizbut Tharir, the protest's organizer, has long campaigned for an Islamic
state in Indonesia.
"This is an example of real colonialism, there is no other reason for them to be (in
Iraq)," protester Muhammad Ismail Yusanto told the gathering. He demanded that the
West "stop the propaganda campaign against Islam in the guise of the war on
terrorism."
U.S. Embassy spokesman Max Kwak thanked Indonesian police for helping maintain
order and said he respected the right of Indonesians to freedom of speech and
assembly, "two of the pillars of democracy."
Last week, the U.S. mission warned Americans to keep a low profile and "exercise
caution if caught in the vicinity of any demonstrations."
Protesters also carried placards condemning Israel and a U.S. mining company - New
Orleans-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. - which is accused of
large-scale environmental damage at the site of its biggest mine in Papua province.
Indonesia is a moderate Islamic country with significant Christian, Hindu and Buddhist
minorities. It has a long tradition of secularism, and is seen by Washington as a close
ally in the war on terror.
The two nations have had close ties since the mid-1960s when a pro-U.S. military
dictatorship seized power in Jakarta. The regime was replaced by a democratic
government in 1999.
Hundreds of hardline Muslims turned out for protests last month, some attacking the
U.S. Embassy with sticks and rocks.
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