Jakarta Globe – AFP, Mar 10, 2015
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| Demonstrators prepare bags of coins to be handed to the Australian embassy during a protest in Jakarta on Tuesday. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad) |
Jakarta.
Indonesian demonstrators on Tuesday delivered bags of coins to the Australian
embassy, saying they were handing back tsunami aid money after Canberra sought
to use the issue to pressure Jakarta into halting the execution of two
Australians.
Shouting
“Shut Abbott’s mouth” and “Abbott, say sorry,” they trampled on a poster
bearing a picture of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott with tape plastered
over his mouth, as they handed over the coins.
Abbott last
month said Jakarta should remember the $1 billion of assistance sent from
Australia in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed
around 220,000 people.
His remarks
were aimed at persuading Jakarta to halt the impending execution of the
Australian ringleaders of the so-called “Bali Nine” heroin smuggling gang,
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who are expected to be put to death soon. But
the bid backfired and caused great offense in Indonesia, where groups of
protesters started a campaign to collect coins to pay back the Australian aid.
At the
latest protest in front of the Australian embassy in Jakarta in recent weeks, a
group of about 30 students handed over seven plastic bags of coins and bills to
embassy personnel, totaling about seven million rupiah ($535).
“What
Abbott did was a low-class act,” campaign coordinator Andi Sinulingga told AFP.
“He could have been more civilized and polite.”
“We never
asked for help but Australia offered to do so. If we knew they were not
sincere, we would have rejected it,” Andi added.
Chan, 31,
and Sukumaran, 33, were sentenced to death for trying to traffic drugs out of
Indonesia in 2006. They are expected to be executed soon following the recent
rejection of their appeals for presidential clemency.
Agence France-Presse
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