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RI, Oz police cooperation hangs in balance as diplomatic spat heats up
National Police chief Gen
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National Police chief Gen. Sutarman says that his force may discontinue its cooperation with the Australian government over revelations that an Australian spy agency attempted to bug the phones of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his inner circle.
'We will wait for the President's instructions on whether to continue collaborating with the Australians,' Sutarman said on Tuesday at National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.
When asked about the possibility that Yudhoyono would order him to bring the cooperation to an end, Sutarman answered, 'We will implement the President's order."
According to Sutarman, the National Police collaborate with the Australian government in the fields of counterterrorism, people trafficking and transnational organized crime.
Cooperation on counterterrorism began in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. At the time, the Australian Federal Police worked closely with the National Police to discover the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
In 2008, the Indonesian and Australian governments jointly launched the Jakarta Center for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC) in Semarang, Central Java. The center was designed for senior law enforcement officials from the Southeast Asia region to develop their skills, including in tackling terrorism and transnational crime.
