JAKARTA, March 18, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Indonesia summoned Canberra’s
ambassador Monday after an Australian senator blamed last week’s mosque
attacks by a white supremacist in New Zealand on immigration.
Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi said she had called ambassador
Gary Quinlan to her office to convey the Muslim majority country’s “strong
condemnation” of Queensland Senator Fraser Anning’s controversial comments.
The 50 Muslims killed in Friday’s massacre in Christchurch included one
Indonesian, while another was seriously injured.
“Ambassador Quinlan conveyed his reassurance that the statement made by
Senator Anning does not reflect the position and sentiments of the government
and the people of Australia,” Marsudi wrote on her official Twitter account.
She added: “Indonesia strongly condemns this act of terrorism which has no
place in New Zealand or anywhere else in this world.”
On Friday, Anning said in a statement the attack in the southern New
Zealand city was the result of Muslim immigration into the country.
Anning’s remarks drew condemnation from across the political spectrum in
Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the comments as “appalling” and
“ugly” with “no place in Australia”, as he announced a bipartisan motion of
censure would be launched.
Former PM Kevin Rudd dubbed Anning a “racist and a fascist”, and
encouraged Australians to sign a petition calling for him to be booted out of
parliament.
On Saturday, Anning — elected in 2017 by a fluke of Australia’s
proportional voting system, having received only 19 first preference votes —
had to be restrained after punching a teenager who threw an egg at him in
protest over his comments.