KEVIN Rudd appealed directly to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on behalf of Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine drug traffickers, urging compassion for the jailed Australians.
In closed-door talks with the Indonesian leader, the Prime Minister called for swift progress on a new prisoner transfer deal to get Corby home.
Mr Rudd told Dr Yudhoyono he would personally seek clemency for Australians on death row when they lodged their own official requests to avoid the firing squad.
The requests came as both men acknowledged relations between the two countries had reached a new high. The visiting Indonesian leader said the nations were once worlds apart, but now had a “fair-dinkum partnership”.
In an historic address to the Australian Parliament yesterday – only the fifth by a foreign leader in 110 years – Dr Yudhoyono announced Indonesia would jail people smugglers for five years.
He also confirmed Indonesian police had killed one of the 2002 Bali bombing masterminds, senior Jemaah Islamiah operative Dulmatin.
Mr Rudd said Australia and Indonesia had different histories and cultures but faced a common future.
“Mr President, we are neighbours by circumstance, but we are friends because we have chosen to be friends,” he said.
Dr Yudhoyono said the relationship had once been characterised by mistrust but was now a shining example of what could be achieved by two such different nations.
He paid tribute to Australian “heroes” who had died in the cause of friendship with Indonesia: the nine servicemen killed in a helicopter crash delivering aid to earthquake victims; the five Australians who died in the 2007 Yogyakarta plane crash; and the embassy trade officer killed in last year’s Marriott Hotel bombing.
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