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Pressure on Australia over anti-terror tactics
By Grant Holloway
CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- Australia is coming under increasing pressure from Asian nations over its handling of the investigation into the October 12 Bali bombings, but is showing little sign of backing down on its tough anti-terror stance. The leaders of both Indonesian and Malaysia have suggested Australia cool down its approach for fear of alienating moderate Muslims in the region. Aggressive raids on Muslim families by Australian security forces searching for links suspected Islamic terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) have stoked anti-Australian sentiment in Indonesia, prompting a caution from President Megawati Sukarnoputri. And Australian government travel advisories warning its citizens not to travel to many Southeast Asian nations has generated high-level criticism, with South East Asian governments suggesting the warnings are an overreaction and unnecessarily damaging to their tourism industries. More than 180 people were killed in the Bali blasts, including nearly 90 Australians. President Megawati is quoted in the official Antara news agency as cautioning Australia not to overreact to the terrorism threat and not to harass Indonesian nationals. "Let's not go overboard," she said Wednesday. "We Indonesians always treat foreigners proportionally." This follows a provocative statement by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accusing Australia of using its security forces to persecute Muslims. "Australia is particularly unsafe for Muslims because they are likely to have their houses raided," Mahathir said. "I think Australia is as unsafe as ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries. I see pictures of doors being broken, which I don't think is essential," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer defended the raids, however, saying they were the result of the U.N. listing of JI as a terrorist organization. He also pointed out that Malaysia co-sponsored the listing of JI and thanked the Malaysian Government for taking similar tough action against JI under its Internal Security Act. An undisclosed number of homes in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth were raided last week by Australian Federal Police officers and agents from ASIO, most of them of Muslim families of Indonesian descent. Warnings defendedAustralian Prime Minister John Howard hinted that there was more evidence of JI involvement by those raided than there appeared on the surface, but would not be drawn on details for security reasons. Australia's Attorney-General Daryl Williams earlier confirmed that Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the group's alleged leader, and a co-founder of JI, Abdullah Sungkar, had visited Australia 11 times with the purpose of establishing a JI cell in Australia. On Thursday morning, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock dismissed Mahathir's comments saying Muslims had nothing to fear about living in Australia. "A sense of proportion makes it abundantly clear that Muslims are perfectly safe in Australia," Ruddock told Channel Seven's Sunrise program. Also on Thursday, Australia's Defense Minister Robert Hill defended the warnings against travel to Indonesia, saying they needed to be taken seriously. "There is a concern about the possibility of sweeping operations against Australians by militant Islamists ... "I think we've got to stress that that warning has got to be taken seriously, but that's not an indictment of the relationship between Australia and Indonesia," he said.
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