susilo bambang lashes out at abbotts stupidity

The president of Indonesia has lashed out at Tony Abbott in a series of angry tweets, accusing the Australian Prime Minister of taking the spying scandal too lightly.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has tweeted his displeasure at the spying revelations. Read them here

Documents revealed yesterday by the ABC and Guardian Australia show that Australia attempted to intercept president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's phone on at least one occasion and monitored his calls for 15 days in 2009.

Mr Abbott refused to be drawn on the allegations, but Jakarta has responded publicly, withdrawing its ambassador and demanding Canberra come clean on the electronic surveillance program.

In his first public comments on the scandal, Mr Yudhoyono voiced his displeasure at the latest allegations, and singled out comments made yesterday by Mr Abbott in which he said "all governments gather information".

"The actions of US and Australia has very much wounded the strategic partnership with Indonesia, a fellow democratic state," he tweeted.

"I also regret the statement by the Australian PM that belittles this surveillance to Indonesia, as if no wrong has been done."


Australia has been given two days to respond to Indonesia over revelations it spied on the president, as Indonesia puts asylum seeker cooperation under review.

As well as Mr Yudhoyono, other spying targets included the phones of first lady Ani Yudhoyono and key government figures.

Before leaving for Jakarta, ambassador Nadjib Riphat Kesoema told media at Canberra airport that he did not know how long he would be kept out of the country.

"I think a good explanation will be the best way to ease the problem," he said.

Indonesia's coordinating minister for politics, law and security, Djoko Suyanto, earlier said he wanted an explanation from Mr Abbott within two days.

Mr Suyanto is the man Mr Yudhoyono has put in charge of dealing with asylum seekers and people smuggling, including whether or not to help Australia tackle the problem.

He appeared on national television last night calling for an explanation.

"The problem is that I haven't received any explanation from the Australian Government relating to the news," he said.

"That's what the Australian Government should explain, that's why it becomes a very important message to be explained by them.