Lawmakers to meet with Edward Snowden

Members of the House of Representatives will fly to Russia to meet with US National Security Agency (NSA) whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who is living in Moscow under temporary asylum, to clarify allegations that Australia had attempted to tap the phones of Indonesian officials, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Russian parliamentary leader Nikolai Levichev, who visited the House on Thursday, said the Russian government would allow the lawmakers to meet with Snowden.

“Through Levichev, Moscow has given us the green light to talk directly with Snowden,” legislator Tantowi Yahya of the House’s Commission I overseeing defense, foreign affair and information, said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the Australian media published contents of a “top-secret” document, allegedly leaked by Snowden, suggesting that Canberra had tapped the phones of President Yudhoyono, his wife and some of his Cabinet members for at least 15 days in 2009.

Tantowi, however, could not yet disclose exactly when the House delegation would fly to Moscow to meet with Snowden. “We need to work out matters related to the Russian Embassy in Jakarta first. Whenever clear access to Snowden has been given, the Commission I members will be ready [to go to Russia],” he said.

Levichev and a number of members of Russian parliament have been in Jakarta since Wednesday.

House deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso, after receiving the Russian guests at his office on Thursday, said their Russian counterparts were there to discuss the ongoing bilateral spat between Jakarta and Canberra over the snooping debacle.

After the meeting, Levichev told journalists via an interpreter that Russia had denounced the alleged wiretapping by the US and Australia. “It is shameful that the wiretapping was done to the leader of a friendly nation instead of terrorists,” he said, as quoted on the House’s official website dpr.go.id. He added that the tapping not only violated diplomatic protocol, but also violated human rights.

“We have heard a lot of calls from the US for the world to uphold human rights and practice good diplomatic relations,” he said. “But then they committed actions that contradicted their own preaching.”

Other issues discussed with the visiting lawmakers, Priyo said, were the conflict in Syria and the territorial dispute in the South China Sea. “We appreciate Russia’s efforts in helping resolve the tension in Syria. Russia says the future of Syria must be determined by the Syrian people alone without interference from other nations. That is the same as Indonesia’s position on the matter,” Priyo said.

Also on Thursday, Vice President Boediono received Sun Chunlan, the secretary of the Communist Party of China’s Tianjin chapter, at his office.

The two discussed the possibility of cooperation between Indonesia and China, particularly in Tianjin, according to Antara news agency.