An envelope found at the Indonesian embassy in Canberra today has tested positive for a biological agent, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Parliament this afternoon.

The embassy has been shut down and its 22 staff will remain in isolation for at least 48 hours after the envelope tested positive for an as-yet unidentified biological agent.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer condemned whoever had sent the package and said the incident would not help Corby's case.

"Further analysis of the powder has tested positive as a biological agent so further testing will need to be carried out to find out what that substance actually is," Mr Downer told Parliament.

"As such there is a possibility that the Indonesian embassy will need to be shut down for quite some period of time and the 22 staff will remain in isolation for the next 48 hours."

Fire, ambulance and police officers raced to the embassy after staff discovered the package about 10.30am (AEST) today.

Staff were ordered to stay inside while a sample was taken away for testing, an Australian Federal Police (AFP) spokesman said.

An embassy staff member later said by phone that staff had not been told of the initial test results revealing the presence of a biological agent.

Nor had they been told staff would be kept at the embassy for 48 hours, the worker said.

Mr Downer pleaded with the Australian public to stop attacking Indonesia over Corby's 20-year jail sentence for drug trafficking, handed down in Denpasar last week.

Talkback radio has been swamped by angry callers and some aid agencies have reported calls from donors to the Boxing Day tsunami asking for their money back.

Others have called for a boycott of travel to the archipelago.

"I know a lot of people in Australia are upset by the Corby verdict," Mr Downer said as he revealed the incident at the embassy.

But denigrating Australia's northern neighbour would not help, he said.

"To continually attack Indonesia and denigrate its institutions and leaders will build up a good deal of anti-Australian sentiment in Indonesia and it will make it very difficult to conclude (prisoner transfer) agreements of this kind, particularly through public institutions like the Indonesian parliament."

Prime Minister John Howard condemned as criminal the act of sending the package, which was addressed to the Indonesian ambassador Imron Cotan.

"It would be the first time, if the preliminary results are confirmed, such a biological agent has been sent in Australia," Mr Howard said.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley also slammed whoever had sent the package.

"This is a disgraceful act, to be condemned by all Australians," he said.

"It's very necessary, I think, to learn from this, that people should view the circumstances now surrounding the particular case which may have generated this with a bit of calm, dispassion and commonsense.

"There is no doubt at all that this is a very serious thing to have happened.

"There should be absolutely no doubt in the public mind that the house is of a combined and united view that this sort of outrageous behaviour must not be encouraged, an atmosphere which encourages it must not be sustained," he said.

The incident followed death threats made last month to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, and the sending of bullets to the Indonesian consulate in Perth in April.

Both incidents were linked to the Corby case.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conspiracy theory anyone?

The South-east Asian arm of Al-Qaeda, JI, is taking good advantage of the euphoria about Corby... I reckon there's a good chance they were responsible for this biological threat, to sour relations between Indonesia and Australia. You know, like one of those films.. Sum of All Fears. Anything that happens in Indonesia is now being linked to Corby and Australia, when most of us have forgotten there's a bigger threat to Australia in the same compound where she is held. Shame really.

Whoever it was is sick in the head.

I wouldn't rule out a local Channel 7/9/10 watcher-xenophobe either - tragic really

Don't think JI has any active cells in australia in possession of those stuff, if there were, they'd already be detained by now by the ASIO.

Some people have no idea - does this not constitute a terrorist act? Morons.

Cowardly. I hope when they do find those responsible, they are tried as terrorists.

Don't think JI has any active cells in australia in possession of those stuff, if there were, they'd already be detained by now by the ASIO.


who knows..... :uh: :sly:

Intimidating the Indonesian authorities and the Indonesian people will get no where. It will only spark more hatred towards Australians within dormant Islamic terrorist cells. An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.

All because of Corby. Have our vigilantes considered that perhaps Corby is guilty as charged?

who knows..... :uh: :sly:
fine, blame the indonesians again... :yes:
I find your conspiracy theory quite offensive. it reminds me of Abu Bakar Basyir claiming that the real perpetrators behind the bali bombing were the USA and Australia, to force indonesia , politically, to crack down on terrorists. obnoxious.

Here's a question:

When was the last time a criminal got charged for treason?

All because of Corby. Have our vigilantes considered that perhaps Corby is guilty as charged?

My questions is...how the hell armchair avengers such as good ol' Samantha are supposed to get their hands on "biological agents"

Maybe it could have just been a packet of 'SeaMonkeys' in the envelope...they're a biological agent.

Most likely, some of the imbeciles pleading for the release of Corby, these simpleton know nothing and watch the news, which of course has pro-Corby sentiment, and then rule that’s it she's innocent get her out, and relate totally idiotic and unrelated issues to the matter (especially the tsunami). Retards with minimal intelligence and intellect who are unable to read between the lines, Corby’s father had dealings with cannabis and was involved in the trade, there was some sort of orchestration and collaboration involved she got caught out and now is sobbing over it. The police commissioner said so himself, but narrowly directed people persist to become a nuisance. Now the govt. is wasting MY TAX DOLLARS to organize an appeal, Corby rot in jail you deserve it.

P.

When was the last time a criminal got charged for treason?

Communists were charged and convicted on Sedition in the 50s. That's similar to treason.

fine, blame the indonesians again... :yes:
I find your conspiracy theory quite offensive. it reminds me of Abu Bakar Basyir claiming that the real perpetrators behind the bali bombing were the USA and Australia, to force indonesia , politically, to crack down on terrorists. obnoxious.


Alvin, i think that theory is a possibility, but a small one. Correct or not, putting the theory forward is not, as you say "blaming the Indonesians" but blaming small group of people - who, if the theory prove correct would happen to most likely to be indonesian.

Many people profit from inciting or maintaining an atmosphere of hate, suspicion, misunderstanding, etc. Terrorists are the obvious group who benefit. Clearly, they hate western countries and governments above all but they do not shy from harming their own people if it suits their purposes. Lets face it, second only to their hatred of the West (for want of a better word), is seeing their country being governened in a secular* manner and their people making their own choices about their lives. They operate best when two goroups of people are suspicious or even hate the other (in this case Idonesia and Australia) and are weakened when their people and their governments get along.

Again i say it is unlikely, but it is not beyond reson that it was an islamic terrorist group (or their moronic sympathisers). Hell, if they can blow upinnocent people, whether Indoensian or Western, Muslim or otherwise, they certainly have it in them to send an envelope to "their" embassy if means stirring up trouble.

One thing strikes me as odd, although it is not enough evidence for me. The sender of this letter is likely to be very stupid. Why then did it contain a letter written in Indonesian? If it was an Australian, i doubt a person that stupid would be able to write Indonesian. As i see it though, it is still likely to be a australian, but don't see the other theory as impossible.

In summary, when people send death threats to embassies, or bullets, or whatever, i don't see this as a reflection on australia or australians. Nor should you see this other "theory" as blaming the indonesians.

Anton, I agree ...anyone could have done it.

Anyway, this is quite irrelevant, but I read somewhere that the letter was written in bad indonesian, which suggest it was not made by a native indonesian speaker.

fine, blame the indonesians again... :yes:
I find your conspiracy theory quite offensive. it reminds me of Abu Bakar Basyir claiming that the real perpetrators behind the bali bombing were the USA and Australia, to force indonesia , politically, to crack down on terrorists. obnoxious.

Hey man I'm not blaming the Indonesians but rather a selected few (JI), who happen to be Indonesians... at least that's my theory. Now I apologise if you did felt offended, because I'm not blaming all of the something-million population of Indonesia.

Anyways it's a theory of one person. Like the bloke above said it's highly unlikely.

Well, the part-time freedom fighters are at it again.

security is being stepped up after phonecalls were made to the embassy AND yet another "package" has been sent.



Indonesia condemns second hoax
From correspondents in Jakarta
June 07, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse


INDONESIA has condemned as a "terror threat" the second security hoax at its embassy in Canberra in a week.
The hoaxes have been linked with Australian public resentment at the 20-year jail sentence handed to Schapell Corby, who was founf guilty of trying to smuggle marijuana into Bali.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said the incident was "part of a wave of threat of terror" against his country.

Australian police sealed off Indonesia's Canberra mission earlier today after the discovery of a package that Mr Wirayuda said contained white powder similar to the substance that caused an alert at the embassy last week.
Advertisement:

Police said tests on both substances had shown they were benign.

There has been widespread public outrage in Australia after an Indonesian court Corby, 27, who was caught with 4.1kg of marijuna stuffed in her luggage at Denpasar airport.

Many of Corby's supporters, who back her claim that she was the victim of an international smuggling syndicate, have threatened to boycott Bali as a holiday destination and have demanded the return of aid for Indonesian tsunami victims.

Yesterday, Bali police said they were investigating a suspicious letter sent to a leading judge in the court that convicted Corby.

Mr Wirayuda said the latest incident would not harm often rocky ties between Indonesia and Australia, which began improving when Canberra offered help in the wake of the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 88 Australians died.

"Actions such as this one will not intimidate our bilateral relations," he said.

"We condemn this type of action."

However, the Australian reaction to Corby's sentence has stirred resentment among the Indonesian public, which see it as an attempt by their neighbour to interfere in Indonesia's justice system.

Indonesia's Tempo magazine, a Time-style current affairs weekly, labelled the embassy incident as the work of "Jemaah Corbyah" - comparing Corby's supporters to the Jemaah Islamiah Muslim extremist group blamed for the Bali bombings.

Federal MP Bruce Billson, who was in Indonesia today for discussions on a possible prisoner exchange deal that would allow Corby to serve her sentence in Australia, also condemned the embassy incidents.

"Firstly we conveyed how appalled we are and disgusted by the parcels that have been sent to the Indonesian embassies," he said.

"We conveyed our deep regret and how appalled we are that such an activity has happened in our land."

The Canberra embassy was shut down for about four hours before it was given the all clear, a spokesman for ACT Police said.

The spokesman refused to describe the package which had prompted embassy staff to call in the police.

Media reports said the package contained a letter and some white powder.

Jakarta's embassy was shut down for two days last Wednesday after a bacteriological agent was sent to the mission, sparking fears of an anthrax attack.

Some 46 embassy staff were also placed in isolation for several hours after white powder spilled from a letter addressed to Ambassador Imron Cotan.

Prime Minister John Howard and other officials strongly condemned what they described as a biological attack on the embassy and linked the incident to public anger over the conviction of Corby.

Forensic tests showed the powder contained a bacteria belonging to the same family that hosts the deadly disease anthrax, but it was harmless.

On Friday, a similar suspicious package containing white powder was found on a loading dock of Parliament House, addressed to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Police later said the powder in the parcel was not dangerous.

Hmm..... shouldn't arrests be coming soon? If this was a conventional threat and xenophobic, vengeful Australians did this, wouldn't they have been caught pretty quick?

Appauling, not much more to say.

It seems to be becoming clearer that this person/s is not a Schapelle Corby supporter but someone using the case as an opportunity to stir up trouble between the two countries.

yeah, well its not doing any good to anyone...
i wonder if or when the letters can be traced...would be interesting to find out who the culprit is.

Hmmm..... could I say I was somewhat right with my theory? That there was someone not related to Schapelle taking advantage of this event? Britain, US, Japan and South Korea, they all have soldiers or personnel in Iraq btw.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suspect packages hit Canberra embassies
By Jano Gibson and agencies
June 9, 2005 - 3:35PM

The Italian embassy has joined a list of four foreign missions in Canberra that received suspect packages today, an ACT Policing spokesman said.

The British high commission and the US, Japanese and South Korean embassies were earlier named as recipients of suspicious packages.

The contents of suspect envelopes sent to the British high commission and Japanese embassy have been tested and found to be harmless.

The suspect packages sent to the other embassies are still undergoing analysis, the ACT Policing spokesman said.

Suspicious packages turned up at four foreign missions and at Parliament House in Canberra today.

"We can confirm the commission received a suspicious package earlier this morning," a British high commission spokesman said. "We are following AFP [Australian Federal Police] guidelines at present."

The US embassy in Canberra has been closed.

"I can confirm that the US embassy did receive a suspicious package," a US embassy spokeswoman said. "The embassy is closed and we are working with the AFP and following the proper procedures for an incident such as this," she said.

"It was a suspicious envelope with white powder,'' another spokeswoman at the US embassy said.

The deputy chief of the Japanese mission, Jiro Kodera, said about 40 embassy staff were locked inside the mission's grounds waiting for emergency service workers to check the envelope and powder.

He said staff there called the AFP after finding an envelope with white powder spilling out of it in the mail about 10am. "It's very disturbing and it's a very bad thing," he said. "Certainly we are not happy but we are not too worried."

The Embassy of the Republic of Korea was unavailable for comment.

Another package of white powder has been detected in the loading dock at Parliament, officials said.

The Department of Parliamentary Services said the incident had been contained in the dock area and ACT emergency services were attending.

"The loading dock has been closed, and as a result there will be delays in the delivery of mail within the building today," the department's Hilary Penfold said in a statement.

"However, there is no danger to people in the building."

The Indonesian embassy, which has received two suspicious packages over the past nine days, said no such scare had occurred there today.

"There has been no drama in front of the embassy at this moment," embassy spokesman Dino Kusnadi said.

He said mail was usually checked before 10am and nothing suspicious had showed up this morning.

An ACT Policing spokesman said: "I can't confirm all the locations but there are a number of foreign missions affected."

He would not say how many had received the packages but hazardous material teams were dealing with the suspect items.

A police spokesman said hazardous materials crews were at the missions.

"The packages have been secured following established protocols for these types of incidents," the spokesman said.

The previous packages sent to Parliament House and the Indonesian embassy were found to be harmless.

They came amid an emotional backlash in Australia against Indonesia's jailing of Australian woman Schapelle Corby on drug smuggling charges.

@renell: who knows, it could be anyone, really.

Indonesia displays maturity in Australia drugs case
By Dan Eaton | June 11, 2005

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Fury in Australia over the jailing of a young woman in Bali for drugs smuggling has puzzled ordinary Indonesians, and given the world's most populous Muslim nation a chance to display a new maturity, analysts say.

But a series of threats to Indonesian diplomats and missions in Australia following the 20-year sentence given to trainee beautician Schapelle Corby on May 27 could play into the hands of Indonesia's radical, anti-Western Muslim fringe, they said.

"Radical Muslims could use that to focus on Australian bullying ... But most Indonesian people are moderate," said Arbi Sanit, a political analyst from University of Indonesia.

In Indonesia, where bombs, corruption and the simply bizarre are daily fodder for headlines, editors reserved little space for Corby, 27, when she was caught entering Bali last year with a stash of marijuana.

While Australian media descended on the resort island, turning the attractive young Queenslander into a cause celebre whom many of her compatriots believe is innocent, Indonesians have been preoccupied with other things.

That includes high-profile corruption arrests and a bombing that killed 22 people last month, the bloodiest since the 2002 Bali nightclub blasts that killed 202 people.

But the delivery of suspicious packages containing white powder to Jakarta's diplomatic missions in Australia in recent weeks has suddenly put the Corby case firmly on the front pages in Indonesia.

"What we have failed to understand is how Australians are thinking about this case in the last three or four months and the general belief there that Corby is innocent," said Daniel Sparingga, a sociologist from Airlangga University in the East Java city of Surabaya.

There are dozens of foreigners serving time for drugs offences in Indonesian jails, including some Australians, and most Indonesians see Corby as nothing new.

"The gap between how Indonesians perceive things and Australians perceive things is very wide ... So it is very easily manipulated politically and even culturally."

MORAL HIGH GROUND

Showing what some observers see as political maturity, Jakarta has worked hard to control fallout from the Corby affair on often rocky relations with its southern neighbor.

"We don't want to reduce and lower our dignity as a nation by parroting what the Australian public has been doing through their emotional reaction," said foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa at a news conference on Friday.

He said Jakarta would not issue a travel warning for its citizens in Australia following the Corby verdict, despite a string of such warnings from its neighbor following the 2002 Bali blasts that killed 88 Australians, and a bombing outside Canberra's embassy in Jakarta last year that killed 10 people.

Gloating was left to the Indonesian media.

"It has brought home to us that some Australians are now beginning to emulate the actions of a few of our more deranged members of society, namely acts of terrorism," Desi Anwar, a prominent TV anchor, wrote in an article in the Jakarta Post in response to the threats to Indonesian diplomats after the Corby verdict.

Public reaction has been muted, with only a few efforts at anti-Australian protests which largely fizzled out.

"What I believe is that (bad) sentiment toward Westerners has for the past few years been associated with Muslim radicals, so people are reluctant to be associated with protests like that," said Sparingga. Masduki Baidlawi, deputy secretary-general of the moderate Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Muslim group, said Indonesia's reaction could be put down to a growing maturity.

"I think its the same question we asked when we held the presidential election last year ... There were fears of violence and all that, but nothing really happened. I guess we need to acknowledge that there is public wisdom."

(Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia and Achamd Sukarsono)

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On the contrary it might be radical muslims trying to deteriorate relations between the two countries.

On the contrary it might be radical muslims trying to deteriorate relations between the two countries.

It could be anyone trying to worsen relations between them. It's clear they are not interested in making things easier for Schapelle Corby.