AUSTRALIA: A new cartoon row and some firefighting

Howard condemns newspaper cartoon that suggests that Australia supports West Papua's struggle for independence from Indonesia

Times of India
Sunday, April 2, 2006

Canberra --- Australian PM John Howard assured Indonesia on Sunday that he does not support the separatist movement in Papua after an Australian newspaper crudely lampooned the Indonesian president over the restive province.

Both countries condemned the Australian cartoon on Saturday which scorned president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's treatment of the province nearest to Australia where separatists are struggling for independence. Canberra's embassy in Jakarta fears a public backlash, the government said.

The cartoon and government responses underline the furore between the neighbouring countries since Canberra accepted a group of Papuans as refugees last month.

The cartoon depicts Yudhoyono as a male dog copulating with a concerned-looking Papuan who is also represented as a dog. Howard described the cartoon as "tasteless" and Yudhoyono as "a wonderful man."

Howard also used a national television interview on Sunday to assure Indonesians that Canberra did not support the separatist movement in Papua, also known as West Papua.

"Accept my assurance that Australia has no designs at all on West Papua and we don't want West Papua to breakaway from Indonesia," Howard told on television. "We fully accept and endorse Indonesian sovereignty."

That claim was contradicted by a cartoon that appeared in an Indonesian newspaper last week that portrayed Howard and his foreign minister Alexander Downer as two copulating Australian wild dogs, known as dingoes.

Howard, depicted in the Rakyat Merdeka newspaper on Wednesday as the male, tells Downer: "I want Papua."

Downer on Saturday issued a statement condemning the Yudhoyono cartoon and saying newspaper editors have responsibility to consider the consequences of what they publish.

Date Posted: 4/2/2006