ASEAN summit to be held as scheduled in Indonesia despite blast
ASEAN summit to be held as scheduled in Indonesia despite blast
Agence France-Presse Manila
Southeast Asian leaders will hold their annual meeting in Indonesia as scheduled in October despite the deadly terrorist bombing in Jakarta, ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said on Wednesday.
"We are going to be there to reaffirm our confidence in the Indonesian authorities and the Indonesian people," Ong told reporters on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) finance ministers meeting in Manila.
The ASEAN leaders had decided last year to hold their 2003 meeting in Bali on Oct. 7-8 in a move to show regional defiance against the terrorist attack on Indonesia's holiday island last October.
More than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, were killed when bomb blasts ripped through Bali's popular Kuta district on Oct. 12, 2002.
On Tuesday, terrorists staged another deadly bombing -- this time at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, killing 14 people and leaving 152 others injured.
"We are all committed to this ASEAN summit in Bali and we'll go. We just have to be careful. From now onwards, we have to be careful with every meeting," Ong said.
He said the ASEAN summit was aimed at displaying the grouping's confidence in Indonesian authorities and "therefore we all would be there".
Ong said there were some groups which had questioned whether the ASEAN finance ministers meeting should have been held in Manila amid rumors of another coup attempt.
"But I think the fact that all countries are represented in the meeting here shows our strong reaffirmation of support for (Philippine) President Gloria Arroyo," he said.
About 300 soldiers were involved in what the government has described as an attempted coup against Arroyo with a siege at the heart of the Makati financial center in Manila on July 27. They decided to return to their barracks after intense negotiations.
The ASEAN finance ministers are meeting a block away from a high-end serviced apartment complex in the Makati financial district that was occupied for more than 20 hours by the rogue soldiers.
The ministers on Wednesday expressed concern over the economic fallout from the deadly Jakarta hotel blast, and called for a firmer stance against terrorism.