Indonesia’s veiled warning over Gregor Haas extradition that co-operation is a two-way street
The bust undoubtedly reflects well on the agency though 106kg is hardly a record haul, as BNN chief Marthinus Hukom readily admitted.
Nor does it make much difference to Indonesia’s war against drugs, as the agency spokesman emphasised a day earlier, given the drugs were only passing through its waters bound for another market.
“If we turned a blind eye it wouldn’t matter because the goods were destined for Australia, not Indonesia,” he told The Australian. “Many other countries act this way.”
Yet Indonesia and Australia had a history of close police co-operation, and Indonesia took seriously its commitment to help Australia counter transnational crime, he added.
The point might have been lost had we not just been discussing the fate of Gregor Haas, 46, currently sitting in a Philippines immigration detention centre awaiting extradition to Jakarta on suspicion of smuggling 5kg of ice into Indonesia from Mexico last December. But the process appears to have stalled, and Indonesia suspects that is because of Australian concerns Haas could face the death penalty if returned.
The point Indonesian authorities are now making – that co-operation is a two-way street – would be dangerous to ignore.
Their archipelagic waters are the last line of defence against illicit drugs, people smugglers and other transnational crime reaching Australia’s borders.
Jakarta understands well Australia’s opposition to the death penalty, and its determination that no more Australian citizens should face the firing squad in Indonesia after the 2015 executions of Bali Nine ringleaders Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.
To that end it appears willing to make significant concessions; to take the death penalty off the table in return for Haas’s extradition, or even agree to his facing trial in Australia.
Canberra is once again navigating potentially tricky waters in its relationship with Indonesia.
How it handles this issue will require precision steering.
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When any Indonesian official reaches out personally to urge your attendance at a press conference, you know they have a point to make. And so on Wednesday The Australian attended a National Narcotics Agency (BNN) media briefing in Batam, a 90-minute flight from Jakarta, over the weekend maritime interception of 106kg of crystal methamphetamine stashed in the engine room of a cargo boat bound for Brisbane.