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| Down Under |
| Aussie Indonesian cartoon war |
| 2006-03-31 |
| THE Australian newspaper has published a cartoon depicting Indonesia's president as a copulating dog, after a Jakarta paper portrayed the Australian leader in a similar manner this week. The cartoon in The Australian newspaper is likely to place further pressure on Jakarta-Canberra relations already strained over Australia's decision to grant refugee visas to 42 asylum-seekers from Indonesia's independence-minded Papua province. The image, penned by award-winning cartoonist Bill Leak, shows President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as a tail-wagging dog mounting a startled-looking Papua dog and saying "don't take this the wrong way". The caption under the cartoon reads "no offence intended". It follows a front-page cartoon in Monday's edition of the Rakyat Merdeka newspaper portraying Prime Minister John Howard and his Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as copulating dingoes. In that image, a shaking Howard is mounted on Downer with the Prime Minister saying: "I want Papua!! Alex! Try to make it happen." Mr Howard dismissed the Indonesian cartoon, although Mr Downer described it as grotesque and "way below standards of public taste". Indonesia has been stung by the decision of Australia's immigration department to issue three-year visas to the group of Papuans, including prominent separatists and their families, who arrived by boat in northern Australia in January. In response, Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Canberra, postponed an agreement on jointly fighting bird flu, and angry Indonesians have protested outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Since the decision, Howard has repeatedly stated his support for Indonesian sovereignty over Papua, a former Dutch colony taken over by Jakarta in the 1960s. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 popcorn. butter. the cartoons are back! Let 'em rip. |
| Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-03-31 21:12 |
