JAKARTA: Indonesia yesterday backed a UN text highlighting anger at US-led data snooping, as Australian websites came under cyber attack in protest at Canberra’s reported involvement in the surveillance network.
Jakarta said it would cosponsor the draft resolution at the UN General Assembly following reports the US and Australian missions in the Indonesian capital collected data as part of the American-led spying efforts.
“Enough is enough,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters.
“The recent revelations will have a potentially damaging impact in terms of the trust and confidence between countries concerned.”
He added that Indonesia was “joining Germany and Brazil in cosponsoring a resolution in the General Assembly of the United Nations to address precisely the kind of issues that are now being brought up”.
On Friday, Brazil and Germany submitted a joint draft resolution on the protection of individual liberties to the UN General Assembly’s human rights panel, according to Brazilian diplomats in New York.
The text does not explicitly mention the United States. But it calls for necessary measures to end violations of the right to privacy, including in digital communications and to force countries to respect their obligations within the framework of international human rights laws. The spying row started off between the US and its European allies but last week erupted in Asia after the Sydney Morning Herald reported there was a network of US intelligence facilities in the region.
The newspaper, amplifying an earlier story by German magazine Der Spiegel, said Australian missions were also involved in the US-led spying network.
On Sunday, The Australian government has said it does not comment on intelligence matters.
AFP
