REUTERS, Sun Feb 19, 3:31 AM ET
Islamic protesters damage US embassy in Jakarta
By Telly Nathalia and Jerry Norton
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Islamic demonstrators angry at depictions of the Prophet
Mohammad turned their wrath on the U.S. embassy in Jakarta on Sunday, beating on
the gate with sticks and pelting the building with tomatoes, eggs and stones.
The missiles shattered glass in the guard post and cracked fibreglass-like material in
the gate.
More than 200 white-clad members of Indonesia's militant Islamic Defenders Front
(FPI) were protesting over Danish cartoons lampooning the Prophet as well as his
depiction in a sculpture at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.
About 50 police were on hand but unable to keep the protesters away from the gate,
witnesses said.
Maksuni, an FPI deputy leader, told reporters after the protests: "This is not the last
warning. This is only the beginning. There will be bigger actions against them."
"Suicide bombings! Prepare for a bomb," said one protester.
Weeks of sometimes violent protests by Muslims across the world against the
cartoons, first published in Denmark and then by many European newspapers, have
triggered fears of a clash of civilisations between the West and Islam. Many Muslims
believe that it is blasphemous to publish images of the Prophet.
An embassy statement read to Reuters by a spokesman said the U.S. government
deplored the violence, adding:
"Ambassador B. Lynn Pascoe said that this was a pre-meditated event that was
staged for television by a small group which seeks to disrupt the relationship between
the United States and Indonesia by inflaming popular opinion."
"This sort of thuggery is unacceptable and needs to be treated as what it is."
The statement said that the United States shared Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono's view "that the cartoon issue should not be used as a wedge
between cultures."
Yudhoyono, other officials, and leaders of moderate Muslim groups in Indonesia, the
world's most populous Muslim nation, have condemned the cartoons while urging that
protests against them be peaceful.
The Mohammad depiction at the U.S. Supreme Court that was an added issue in the
latest protest is one of a number showing historical figures viewed as lawgivers and
sculpted in the 1930s.
(With reporting by Crack Palinggi and Benny Siahaya)
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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