Watch out for anti-RI Papuans seeking asylum at A'lian embassy

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Security personnel need to constantly watch out for a group of anti-Indonesia Papuans planning to enter the Australian embassy premises in Jakarta although apparently they have yet to decide on the right time to do that, intelligence observer and lecturer at the State Intelligence Institute (IIN) Wawan H. Purwanto said.

Their target is the Australian embassy, and the number of Papuas planning to seek political asylum by entering the embassy premises, may reach hundreds, he said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

He added that actually they have yet to make up their mind, and they may be thinking twice after expressing their intention on various occasions, including seminars and interviews with the press.

"The plan is already there, including international funding in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane," he said.

Besides the pro-Independent Papua groups in Australia, the same group in London had also been raising funds to finance various black campaigns on the Papua issue, he said.

In the meantime, the Indonesian government and people, according to Wawan, have yet to put up an effective resistance against the black campaigns of the groups in Australia, the UK and in the US.

They will continue rallying their forces, and would not stop until they have achieved their goal of having Papua Province secede from the Unitary State of the Indonesian Republic, he pointed out.

Besides those in Australia, the United Kingdom and in the United States, certain elements even in the Netherlands had often held international meetings on the Papua issue in The Hague, Wawan said.

To counter the black campaigns, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry must be active in providing correct information and understanding to the international community in case of incorrect news reports on the Papua Province. Furthermore, the foreign office also needs to take tactical, strategic and synergic measures with other relevant government institutions and agencies including the Military (TNI) and the ministry of home affairs, he said.

"We should not become another victim of our own ignorance, such as by what Ramos Horta had done the other day (in the case of our loss of East Timor). I wish to invite our legislators to be active like what had been done by Senator Kerry Nettle who had given a testimony in various cities (in Australia)," he said.

Touching on the plan of the House`s foreign affairs commission to summon Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Bill Farmer and Indonesian Ambassador to Australia and Vanuatu Hamzah Thayeb for a hearing soon, Wawan said it was a good idea.

"I think there is no problem with that. Communication will prevent miscommunication," he said.

In the meantime, regarding the deteriorating relations between Indonesia and Australia following Canberra`s decision to grant temporary staying visas to 42 of the 43 political asylum seekers from Papua Province, deputy secretary general of the Social Justice Party (PKS) central executive board Fahri Hamzah said that it was about time for the Indonesian government to remove all covers of Australia`s foreign policy on Indonesia.

This is very important for the public, because they would know who the neighboring country really is, he said.

The relations between the two countries had been deteriorating in the last couple of days after the Federal Government through the Australian Immigration Department granted temporary staying visas to 42 political asylum seekers from Papua province which the Australian media -- ABC -- termed separatist West Papua.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the Indonesian Ambassador to Australia to return to Jakarta, and will review a number of cooperation schemes with Australia. (*)