RI recalls ambassador to Australia

JAKARTA. Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa confirmed on Monday the government would recall Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Nadjib Riphat Kesoema following news reports suggesting that Australia had tried to listen to the phone calls of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his wife Ani Yudhoyono.

The envoy was being called back to Jakarta for consultations after “secret” documents leaked by US intelligence fugitive Edward Snowden named the President, First Lady, as well as some 2009 Cabinet members, as targets of Australia’s surveillance.

“[The alleged wiretapping] was not a clever thing to do. It was not smart [...] It was an unfriendly act,” Marty told a press conference at his office. “We are hurt by these revelations,” he said, adding that he had informed Yudhoyono over the plan to recall the ambassador.

The revelations came amid already heightened diplomatic tension between the two countries amid rows over boat people issues, putting Jakarta-Canberra ties in an arguably record low in the past several years.

The documents, released by international media on Monday, were claimed to be from Australia’s electronic intelligence agency, the Defense Signals Directorate (DSD), which is now called the Australian Signals Directorate, dated around 2009.

The surveillance targets, according to the document, also included Vice President Boediono, former vice president Jusuf Kalla, Yudhoyono’s then spokesman for foreign affairs Dino Patti Djalal, then Coordinating Political and Security Affairs minister Widodo AS, and then State Secretary (now Coordinating Economic minister) Hatta Rajasa.

The document shows how DSD monitored the call activity on Mr Yudhoyono's handset for 15 days in August 2009.(Bagus BT Saragih/The Jakarta Post)