Jakarta
Indonesia is furious over Australia’s recent decision to grant political asylum to a group of Indonesian separatists from the province of Papua. “Don’t insult us,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said this week. “Don’t toy with us and don’t deny us justice.” Indonesia fears that Australia could become a hub for Papuan separatists, just as it did for activists from East Timor more than a decade ago. That Indonesian province eventually gained independence. Prime Minister John Howard said that going forward, Australia would send all asylum seekers to the Pacific island nation of Nauru for processing, rather than holding them in facilities in Australia. “Anybody who thinks that this is some kind of green light for people to resume unauthorized arrivals in this country will be very sadly mistaken,” Howard said.
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