Craig Skehan, Peter Cole-Adams and Mark Metherell – Indonesia turned up the heat on Australia yesterday with accusations of torture by Interfet forces in East Timor and bans on wheat imports as it tried to deflect attention from worsening civil unrest.
Two days of rioting in Jakarta has left at least four people dead – including a policeman – in the biggest domestic upheaval since the downfall of President Soeharto.
Up to 10,000 demonstrators, many of them students, protested against new laws that would give police and the military wide powers to restrict people's movements, to detain and interrogate, stop assemblies and control the media and telecommunications.
A Jakarta-based political analyst, Wimar Witoelar, said the military was desperate to keep domestic attention focused on criticism of foreign intervention in East Timor and away from problems in other parts of the country.
"Many Indonesians are talking about hurt feelings over the way Australia has handled its role on East Timor," he said. "But then they are starting to think more about the other side and the tens of thousands of people the military has killed."
Most Indonesian newspapers reported claims yesterday by the militia leader Filomeno Antonio Britto that eight militiamen had been tortured by peacekeepers in East Timor.
Britto alleged that one member of the Mahadomi militia had died after being doused with petrol and set alight inDili by foreign troops.
The claims came as the Australian head of the peacekeepers, Major-General Cosgrove, directly accused Indonesian soldiers of links with the anti-independence militias responsible for mass killings and destruction.
Indonesia, meanwhile, said that although it would hand over control of East Timor to the force, it planned to keep 4,500 Indonesian troops in the territory.
An editorial in the Republica newspaper referred to Major-General Cosgrove, as "Major-General Cockroach" and said there were growing tensions between Indonesians and foreign soldiers.
One of the paper's commentators said Mr Howard stood for the same anti-Asian racism as the One Nation leader, Ms Pauline Hanson.
At the same time, one of Indonesia's biggest flour millers confirmed that it had slashed by 50 per cent its wheat imports from Australia, following claims by another influential wheat trader that all purchases from Australia would stop.
The director of Bogasari Flour Mill, Mr Fransiscus Welirang, said the 50 per cent cut was a "logical consequence" of the uncertain relations between the two countries.
Mr Bustinil Arifin, head of the private wheat importer PT Sriboga Raturay, said all importers had stopped buying wheat from Australia because of the political tension.
As well, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry urged its members to switch their export markets to countries other than Australia.
Meanwhile, Mr Howard said he would consider national service if there was a military need for it, but he did not believe this was the case at present. The Government would look at views in favour of national service during its defence review.
"Nobody should think I have a deep-seated philosophical objection to it," he said on Brisbane radio. "It's just that I don't believe at the present time that there is a defence need for it."