Indonesia-Australia row on visa won't break ties: officials

The row between Indonesia and Australia on the granting of temporary visas to 42 out of 43 Indonesians Asylum seekers would not develop to the breaking of bilateral ties, the Australian ambassador and an Indonesian state spokesman said here Monday.

Some 100 protesters gathered outside Australia's embassy in Jakarta to reject Australia's decision last week to recognize 42 people from Indonesia's province of Papua as refugees despite Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's demand that they should be returned.

"We believe that Australia and Indonesia have a broad base productive of mutual beneficial relationship. That relationship is good enough for us to go on working through this issue and other issues and developing our bilateral relations," Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer said here.

The ambassador said that Australia supported Indonesia's integrity and did not support any separatist movement in Indonesia.

"We do not support and will not support any request that Papua should be independent or break away from Indonesia," he said.

Earlier, spokesman of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry Yuri Thammrin said that the Australian government has adopted a double standard, as it does not take any action against the Papua separatist movement in Australia.

On the response to the massive demonstration in the country, the ambassador said, "what I think is that this is democracy and people are exercising their right to have their say... What I see here is something that doesn't cause me a problem."

In another development here, state spokesman Dino Pati Djalal said Indonesia would not cut its diplomatic relations with Australia.

"It (cutting diplomatic ties) will not happen because if it does, it is the separatists who will rejoice because that is exactly what they would like to see," Dino was quoted by the Antara News agency as saying at the presidential office here.

Dino said the case should not lead to severance of diplomatic ties because in the past the two countries had faced more serious problems yet their diplomatic relations remained intact.

"Therefore, breaking diplomatic relations is not an option for the government because it is not realistic," Dino said.

The asylum seekers claimed that Indonesia perpetrated genocide in their hometown, but the Indonesian foreign ministry strongly rejected the claim.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who came to power in October 2004, insisted on tackling the separatist movement in the country.

Source: Xinhua