SYDNEY, 2 June 2005 — Indonesia’s embassy in Canberra was sealed with 22 staff inside yesterday after a letter filled with a bacterial powder arrived for the ambassador in what appeared to be a biological attack linked to the jailing of a young Australian woman in Indonesia for drug trafficking.
Prime Minister John Howard condemned the attack and issued a formal apology to Indonesia, a former regional rival. Jakarta called the incident a cowardly attempt to intimidate it over the conviction and jailing last week of Australian Schapelle Corby, whose fate sparked outrage among many Australians.
“This is a deeply distressing incident,” said a clearly shaken Howard. “It is quite appalling, and I condemn it unreservedly.”
“Let me say that I’m staggered that it’s happened, but I’m afraid that we have to recognize that there’s a dark corner in every country and you can get that kind of behavior in every country,” he said, calling the attack “a recklessly criminal act”.
But Howard, whose conservative government is one of Washington’s closest allies in the US-led “war on terror”, stopped short of calling the incident a terrorist attack.
Police said the powder spilled onto the floor when embassy staff in the capital Canberra opened a letter addressed to Ambassador Imran Cotan.
The letter arrived mid-morning, and by yesterday afternoon the leafy street outside the embassy was swarming with police, firefighters and emergency personnel in protective clothing. The nearby US and French embassies were unaffected. The 22 staff inside the embassy had to take disinfectant showers. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said they would be kept under quarantine in the compound for up to 48 hours while scientists tried to determine the exact nature of the bacteria involved.
Ambassador Cotan was not in the embassy at the time. Howard later said the biological agent inside the letter was a bacillus bacteria, a family which includes deadly anthrax but also harmless germs. Canberra’s chief health officer, Charles Guest, tried to play down the danger, saying it was highly unlikely the substance involved was deadly. “The powder has been tested,” he told ABC radio.
During and after Corby’s trial, the Indonesian embassy and consulates around Australia received death threats over the case and requested increased security from police. Indonesia, which refrained from reacting to the earlier threats against its missions in Australia, responded strongly to yesterday’s attack. “We strongly condemn what happened, and clearly this is in contrast with the fact that there has been closeness between Indonesia and Australia,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalagewa.
