Umno Youth today strongly condemned a demonstration in front of the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta yesterday where some

protestors threw human faeces into the mission's compound and others stomped on the Malaysian flag and smeared it with faeces.

Its head Khairy Jamaluddin said that though the act was by a small group of people not representative of the Indonesian people as a whole, the incident was distasteful and had tarnished Malaysia's image.

He urged the Indonesian government to step up security at the embassy to prevent a recurrence of such demonstrations.

NONE He also urged the Indonesian media to exercise greater prudence in reporting on such matters so as to maintain the harmonious bilateral relations.

"I have directed the Umno Youth International Bureau to send a memorandum to the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur to indicate our protest to the Indonesian government in the matter," he said in a statement.

In the incident yesterday, a group of demonstrators calling themselves Benteng Demokrasi Rakyat (Bendera), threw human faeces into the compound of the Malaysian embassy and stomped on the Malaysian flag and smeared it with faeces.

The demonstration was in protest against the arrest of three Indonesian fisheries officers by the Malaysian police.

In the incident over a week ago in the vicinity of the Bintan waters, Indonesian maritime and fisheries officers arrested seven Malaysian fishermen who were accused of having encroached into Indonesian waters while the Malaysian police arrested three of the Indonesian officers for having encroached into Malaysian waters.

All were freed on Aug 17.

- Bernama