Indonesia & the Terror Crusade: Howard Muddies the Waters Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit INDONESIA AND THE TERROR CRUSADE: AUSSIE POLITICS MUDDY THE WATERS [Australia's PM John Howard, last seen turning away boatloads of Afghan refugees, has now implied that if Indonesia is not FOR war, it must not be against terrorism. Howard's fighting an election in a country that is probably much more divided over the US Crusade than anyone would like to admit. Meanwhile, Indonesia's Megawati is skating on a razor's edge between her own furious Islamic population and the murderous coup-prone Indonesian military, with its many old friendships in the monster of North America. US atrocities "smoking out" Indonesian communists in 1965 were some of the bloodiest and most disgraceful of CIA covert operations. Mr. Howard is a nasty piece of work. US statements in the last of this short series of articles are especially chilling, given the grisly history of Washington's anti-communist Crusade in Indonesia. - NY Transfer] * source - Antara (Indonesia) Antara: Thursday, October 18, 2001 9:47:14 AM http://www.antara.co.id/e_berita.asp?id=17395 HOWARD MADE MISLEADING COMMENT ON MEGAWATI`S RECENT STAND ON U.S. MILITARY ATTACK, SAYS ENVOY Canberra - Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Sudjadna Parnohadiningrat said Prime Minister John Howard has made a blunder by making a misleading comment on President Megawati`s recent stand on the U.S. attack on Afghanistan. By his misleading statement, Howard, who was currently facing strong political competition from rival Kim Beazley of the Labour Party, had shown his failure to understand Indonesia`s stand on terrorism, Sudjadna told Antara here on Wednesday. In addition, Howard`s blunderous statement had to do with his effort to attract the symphaty of Australian people who will cast their votes on November 10. Antara: Friday, October 19, 2001 8:52:44 AM http://www.antara.co.id/e_berita.asp?id=17485 AMIEN PLAYS DOWN HOWARD`S CRITICAL COMMENT ON MEGAWATI`S STANCE Jakarta - People`s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Chairman Amien Rais here Thursday played down a critical comment by Australian Prime Minister John Howard on President Megawati Soekarnoputri`s stance on the Afghan crisis, saying it was merely `a political commodity` in Howard`s election campaign. `It was an excessive reaction, a political commodity meant for domestic (Australian) consumption as Howard is facing strong political competition from rival Kim Beazley of the Labour Party in Australia`s election next November,` Amien said. President Megawati said last Sunday Indonesia did not wish to see any country commit violence against another, even if it was to redress some wrong it had previously experienced. Friday, October 19, 2001 8:54:12 AM http://www.antara.co.id/e_berita.asp?id=17486 MEGAWATI SHOULD REAFFIRM RI`S STAND ON AFGHANISTAN AT APEC MEET: OBSERVER Jakarta - When attending the APEC meeting in Shanghai, President Megawati Soekarnoputri should reaffirm Indonesia`s rejection of the continuing U.S. military attacks on Afghanistan, a political observer said here Thursday. Prof Dr Maswadi Rauf, a political scientist, said the president needed to make two things plain at the conference. The first was that Indonesia fully supports the fight against terrorism because it had itself experienced acts of terrorism, namely the waves of bombings by unidentified perpetrators in many locations in the recent past. Antara: friday, October 19, 2001 9:00:56 AM http://www.antara.co.id/e_berita.asp?id=17489 US TO COOPERATE WITH RI GOVT IN ELIMINATING AL-QUEDA NETWORK Jakarta - US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage said his government will cooperate with the Indonesian government in a secret operation to eradicate an Osama bin Laden-led Al-Queda newtwork allegedly also operating in Indonesia. "I would say that we would prefer to act in association with the Indonesian government. We can`t imagine any government with an intention of maintaining terrorist cells inside the society. So if we found terrorist cells and could identify them in Indonesia, we hope the Government would do the right thing,` Armitage said in an interview with Metro TV, a local private television station, here Thursday. The US government recently said that Osama`s networks also operate in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Copyright 2000-2001 LKBN Antara in association with Indonesia Interactive. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-10.19.01-14:02:22-12771