President rejects corruption claim

President rejects corruption claim

Tom Allard, Jakarta
March 12, 2011


INDONESIA demanded, and received, an expression of regret from the US ambassador in Jakarta yesterday as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono emphatically denied allegations in US diplomatic cables that he and his family were implicated in corruption.

The allegations, revealed in The Age yesterday and based on cables obtained by WikiLeaks, created a media storm in Indonesia as the country's foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, hauled in US ambassador Scot Marciel to formally lodge a ''strong protest''.

At an extraordinary and, at times, awkward press conference after the meeting, Mr Marciel declined to confirm or deny the veracity of the cables or comment on the specific allegations they contained.
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But he said, generally speaking, such cables contained ''candid and often raw information'' that was ''often incomplete and unsubstantiated''.

''We express our deepest regrets to President Yudhoyono and to the Indonesian people,'' he said, adding that the publication of the cables was ''extremely irresponsible''.

Mr Marciel abruptly left the press conference shortly afterwards, leaving Mr Natalegawa to answer questions alone.

Dr Yudhoyono, meanwhile, said The Age had breached the ''universal journalism code of ethics'' by publishing details of the cables without asking him for comment beforehand. ''The President is absolutely not happy with the false coverage, full of lies, run in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age,'' according to a statement ''sent on behalf of the President'' by his senior spokesman, Daniel Sparingga. ''The content is full of sensation and disrespect, full of nonsense.''

The cables from the US embassy in Jakarta, sent between 2004 and 2010, contained a series of startling but unverified allegations about the conduct of Dr Yudhoyono, his wife and family. Among the allegations were that Dr Yudhoyono ordered a corruption investigation into political powerbroker Taufik Kiemas be dropped and that he received funds from controversial businessman Tomy Winata via a middleman.



http://www.theage.com.au/world/president-rejects-corruption-claim-20110311-1brc5.html