A firing squad in Indonesia has executed a convicted drug runner, the fifth execution in that country since March.  It could be a troubling sign for Australians on death row in Bali,  And it comes at a time that Canberra – Jakarta relations have hit a big snag, as evidenced by the Indonesian president’s Twitter account.

Pakistani man Muhammad Abdul Hafeez was sentenced to death in 2001 for attempting to smuggle more than a kilo of heroin into Indonesia.  He was killed on Sunday morning at a cemetery outside Jakarta.

Two Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, are appealing to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for clemency from their death sentences stemming from a plot to smuggle more than eight kilos of heroin out of Bali.  But Yudhoyono is not terribly happy with Australia right now.

Indonesia recalled its ambassador from Canberra after revelations that Australian spy agencies attempted to snoop on Indonesia’s elites.  ABC and the Guardian newspaper based stories on documents smuggled out of America by US intelligence fugitive Edward Snowden, revealing that the Defense Signals Directorate (DSD) attempted to listen in to the president’s phone calls, as well as those of his wife and inner circle. 

Prime Minsiter Tony Abbott attempted to defuse the situation, but it didn’t go over well.  Maybe because it’s because Tony started with the ol’ “everybody does it” excuse, I don’t know.  But President Yudhoyono has taken to his Twitter account to accuse Mr. Abbott of “belittling” a situation Indonesia clearly takes very seriously.  Yudhoyono is threatening to reexamine all Indonesian-Australian cooperative arrangements.