This is appalling:
Australia will withdraw its ambassador to Indonesia following the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran by firing squad overnight.
“These executions are both cruel and unnecessary,” Mr Abbott said.
“We respect Indonesia’s sovereignty but we do deplore what’s been done and this cannot be simply business as usual. For that reason, once all the courtesies have been extended to the Chan and Sukumaran families our ambassador will be withdrawn for consultations.”
Australia has not withdrawn ambassadors when other Australian citizens have been subjected to the death penalty, including when convicted Australian drug smuggler Van Tuong Nguyen was executed in Singapore in 2005.
“I want to stress that this is a very important relationship between Australia and Indonesia but it has suffered as a result of what’s been done over the last few hours,” he said.
As I ask around today it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Indonesia hasn’t just shot its relationship with Australia stone dead.
