CNSNews, November 06, 2001
Australian School Attacked in Jakarta, Days After Threats
By Patrick Goodenough, CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - A hand grenade exploded inside a compound
of the Australian International School in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, Tuesday
night, causing no injuries but damaging some property, the school's principal said.
The incident is the first security scare at the school since tensions increased in the
world's most populous Muslim country following the start of U.S.-led military strikes in
Afghanistan in retaliation for the Sept. 11 terror attacks in America.
It came just days after the twin targets of the U.S. action - suspected terror attack
mastermind Osama bin Laden and the Taliban militia controlling much of Afghanistan
- made public statements critical of Australia.
Australia has thrown its support behind the American action, contributing troops and
equipment to the campaign.
Taliban envoy to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef warned last week that countries
contributing to the U.S. campaign had also become targets in its holy war, confirming
that this included Australia.
Separately, a videotaped message by bin Laden, broadcast at the weekend, accused
Australian "crusader forces" of being party to "a long series of conspiracies, a war of
annihilation [against Islam]."
Bin Laden said Australia's peacekeeping operation in East Timor had been aimed at
dividing Muslim Indonesia.
Australia led a U.N. peacekeeping force into East Timor in September 1999, after
pro-Indonesian militias went on the rampage following a referendum calling for the
independence of the predominantly Christian territory. It will become fully independent
next year after more than two decades of repressive Indonesian occupation.
The principal of the Australian International School, Penny Robertson, declined to
speculate about who had thrown the grenade, attributing the incident to "heightened
tensions."
During the East Timor crisis, petrol bombs had been thrown into the school grounds
after school hours, prompting a brief closure.
Robertson said about 20 percent of the school's 400 students were Indonesian.
On Monday, Australia's embassy in Jakarta was the target of an "anthrax" hoax. U.S.
military medical experts tested white powder sent in a letter to the embassy, and
declared it harmless.
Dr. Glen Barclay of the Australian National University, who specializes in international
relations involving Islamic countries, said Australian government policies had upset
many in the Muslim world, even before Prime Minister John Howard's embracing of the
U.S. anti-terror drive following Sept. 11.
"Everything Australia has done in the past three or four years has damaged our
relations with the Islamic world. Our relations with Indonesia, which were always very
delicate, were enormously damaged by our leadership role in East Timor."
Howard's firm stance against taking in refugees from Western Asia had also
contributed to ill will, Barclay said.
"The refugee crisis essentially concerns Islamic peoples - the refugees Australia has
been trying to keep out of the country are Islamic refugees. One can only say it's all
negative, nothing positive [from Muslims' point of view]," he said.
"We have to regard ourselves as potential target. We are an ally of the U.S., providing
unconditional support for the intervention [in Afghanistan], so we are at risk," Barclay
added.
Ian Stewart, a former East Asian correspondent for several media organizations,
including The New York Times, wrote in an Australian publication this week that bin
Laden's denunciation of Australia would "ignite more anti-Australian fervor among
Indonesian Muslims."
It would also further encourage Muslims to attack Christians in Indonesia's Maluku
province, he warned.
A bloody religious conflict in the area has cost an estimated 9,000 lives over the past
three years. Western charities operating in the area say self-described jihad warriors
have declared a holy war against Christians in the only part of the country with a
sizeable non-Muslim population.
'Suspend the bombing'
In recent weeks, militant Muslim groups in Indonesia have protested against the U.S.
bombing in Afghanistan, and in some cases activists have threatened to force
Westerners to leave.
The government, while also calling for a suspension of the bombing, has taken a firm
line against the protestors, guarding the U.S. embassy and other facilities and
rejecting appeals to cut ties with Washington.
At the close of a two-day summit of Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) leaders in Brunei Tuesday, President Megawati Sukarnoputri called once
again for a "humanitarian pause" in the bombing campaign before the Muslim fast
month of Ramadan and Christmas. Ramadan begins in around a week's time.
Earlier, Megawati and Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad failed to persuade all of
the eight other ASEAN leaders to include in a joint declaration on terrorism an appeal
for a halt to the bombing. ASEAN operates on consensus, and the Philippines and
Singapore opposed the move.
A statement did, however, voice ASEAN leaders' "concern for the welfare of the
innocent people as a result of the military action in Afghanistan and [said they]
considered extending humanitarian assistance."
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