Aussie FM Smith in Indonesia to talk clemency

Tony Hotland ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 08/11/2008 10:35 AM  |  World

Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith will kick off a three-day visit to Indonesia on Monday, as he seeks to expand bilateral talks between the two countries.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said last week Smith would meet with his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirayuda, and other senior officials and members of parliament.

Smith and Hassan are slated to travel to Makassar, South Sulawesi, to visit one of the 2,000 junior high schools constructed or expanded using Australian aid.

Smith said Sunday he would use the meeting to raise the issue of clemency for three Australians facing death by firing squad. The three are part of the "Bali Nine" -- a group of Australians convicted over a foiled 2005 plot to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia.

"I'll make inquiries about the progress of their cases through the Indonesian legal and judicial system and, again, make the point that when those processes have completed, that if any of those three still remain the subject of the death penalty, we'll be making a plea for clemency in accordance with our normal processes," Smith said, as quoted by Agence France-Presse.

The bilateral meeting will be the fourth for the two foreign ministers, after the UN climate change conference in Bali in December, Hassan's visit to Perth in February and a meeting of ASEAN's foreign ministers in Singapore last month.

Indonesia and Australia upgraded bilateral relations with the signing of the Lombok Treaty, which covers cooperation in several major areas.

A closer examination of those relations will be provided Monday when Smith delivers his speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

While relations between the two have generally been considered good, Indonesia and Australia have endured some major lows in the past.

The countries were at odds over Timor Leste's vote for independence in 1999. Indonesia retracted its envoy to Canberra in 2006 after Australia granted asylum to a number of Papuans, claiming they had been persecuted.

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