Dec. 3, 2002
Australia accused of trying to take over Asia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia
Australia dismissed escalating diplomatic outrage over its tough
anti-terror stand as "nonsense" and "absurd" on Tuesday after Asia's
longest serving leader said a pre-emptive military strike against
terrorists in the region would be "an act of war."
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad who has long viewed Australia as
an agent of the United States, said the country stood out like a "sore
thumb" in Asia and was behaving "as if these are the good old days when
people can shoot Aborigines without caring for human rights."
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday he would order
pre-emptive strikes against suspected terrorists if they were plotting
attacks against his country or countrymen.
"If they used rockets or pilotless aircraft to carry out assassination,
then we will consider this as an act of war and we will take action
according to our laws to protect the sovereignty and independence of our
country," said Mahathir, whose mainly Muslim country has a defense alliance
with Australia along with Singapore, Britain and New Zealand.
In Canberra, Chris Kenny, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer, said he was unaware of Mahathir's comments, reported by Malaysian
news media. However, he said: "there's been a lot of nonsense around about
this issue."
Downer told CNN in an interview that "to extrapolate from all of this that
Australia's actually got some sort of new doctrine, that it's going to bomb
its neighbors is really just absurd."
Nonetheless, the Philippines despaired that Australia might be "harboring
hegemonic ambitions in the region" and ridiculed Canberra's call for the
U.N. Charter to be changed to allow members states to launch pre-emptive
anti-terror strikes on foreign soil.
"This proposal has no ghost of a chance to be supported in the U.N. General
Assembly," Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople Ople said in a statement
released during an official visit to Japan.
In Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic country, the military chief
said a pre-emptive strike by Australia would be "an act of aggression."
The Jakarta Post quoted Gen. Endriartono Sutarto as saying, "We will not
stand by should they attack."
Australia has been groping for a response to terrorism since the Oct. 12
bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed nearly 200
people, half of them Australian tourists.
http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=37709&group=webcast
