AUSTRALIA: Bali bombing five years on
Updated
Indonesia and Australia are marking the fifth anniversary of the Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians.
Five years on, Australia is remembering that act of Muslim extremism but its also considering a relationship with Indonesia that has changed significantly.
Presenter: Graeme Dobell
Speakers: Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer
DOBELL: The Bali bombing marked the moment when Australia's security relationship with Indonesia moved from the military to the police, and moved, moreover, from standoff to cooperation. In October, 1999, Australian and Indonesian forces exchanged fire across the border between East and West Timor, with one Indonesian police officer killed.
Jakarta had torn-up its security treaty with Canberra over the Australian-led intervention in East Timor and military conflict was still a possibility. Almost exactly three years later, the Bali bombing changed the security dynamic. It was the painstaking forensic work of the Australian police at the bomb site that identified the registration of the truck which carried the explosives. And Australian police worked beside Indonesia police in every step that followed, leading to the capture and conviction of the Bali bombers.
The Australian Defence Force had ownership of any security connection with Indonesia during the decades of Suharto's rule. In the new democratic Indonesia, the frontline role is now held by the Australian Federal Police. It's still a complex working relationship, but doesn't hold quite the moral peril of the Suharto problem dealing with an Indonesian Army that functioned as both mafia and military.
After the heartache of Bali came the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the huge tragedy that struck Aceh showed again how disaster can bring nations together, prompting these words from Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
YUDHOYONO: That the relations between Indonesia and Australia are getting stronger, closer and better. And that is the very purpose of my visit to your great country - to affirm our special relations and to make it even stronger.
DOBELL: An Australia Indonesia "special relationship" is a claim on the future as much as a break with the lows of the past. That SBY speech in Canberra in 2005 can be marked as the warmest ever made by an Indonesian president about Australia.
That warmth rests on firm self-interest - an Indonesian establishment, long in denial, was deeply shocked by Bali as a statement of the threat it faces from its own Muslim extremists. The police skills offered by Australia have been essential in waging the fight, leading to the framework security agreement Australia and Indonesia signed in November last year identifying 21 areas for cooperation, defence, law enforcement, counter intelligence, counter terrorism and intelligence.
It was the most detailed of nearly a dozen bilateral anti-terrorism treaties Australia has signed across the Asia Pacific in the five years since Bali. And looking over that period, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, sees real progress.
DOWNER: In South-East Asia we have invested an enormous amount in counter-terrorism working with obviously the Indonesians, but also Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines very importantly, to some extent with Thailand. America, others - some of the European countries - have invested wisely in counter-terrorism in South-East Asia as well and those governments in South-East Asia; particularly, by the way, the Indonesian Government have done an excellent job.
I think you have seen a lot of terrorism in South-East Asia disrupted, networks broken up, a lot of terrorists have been either killed or detained. But that isn't to say I think the problem has gone away. There are still problems. You can see day by day in the Philippines, in southern Thailand, I think in Indonesia, there are still some risks there. It's not as great as it was.
